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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26314033">I'll Follow You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword'>nerdzeword</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Gen, SO MUCH FLUFF, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Unaccompanied Minors, aftgbigbang, aftgbigbang2020, guys is it gay if you make a crosscountry roadtrip to save your best friend?, literal children, meeting the grandparents, no adult supervision whatsoever, only healthy family relationships in this house thanks, roadtrip au, twinyards</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:00:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>29,087</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26314033</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmate au meets roadtrip au with a dash of found family for taste  (Featuring: the monsters as unaccompanied minors, a bit of childhood trauma, Neil's ever present Exy obsession, and quite a few oblivious or downright terrible adults.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aaron Minyard &amp; Andrew Minyard, Neil Josten &amp; Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick &amp; Aaron Minyard, Nicky Hemmick &amp; Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick &amp; Neil Josten</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>301</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>AFTG Big Bang 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A few things before we get started.<br/>1. A HUGE thanks to my beta @talk-less-smilemore, she's the best, and this would not be nearly as good as it is without her.<br/>2.Another shout out to @makebelieveanything, who doesn't let me get away with punctuation mistakes and @justadreamfox who has been my best cheerleader through this. I still have not deleted their sassy commentary on my google doc.<br/>3. Much thanks to the fearless leaders of this year's big bang, it's not a great time to be running something like this, and they killed it.<br/>4. Lastly, a big thanks to my artist, @puckboum_art, who's art is beautiful and I still tear up every time I look at it. Go say hi to him on twitter and give him some love, because he deserves it.</p>
<p>Anyway here's Wonderwall.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  
</h2>
<h2>Chapter One</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel was selfish. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>His mother always said so, anyways. It was yelled at him from across rooms when he dared to track mud on the carpets; accompanied by the familiar bite when she would snap at him for asking if he could go to school, and whispered under her breath as she walked past him crying in his bedroom. She didn’t enter the bedroom. She never did.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel's father never exactly denied her accusations. He never said it himself, but he never denied it either. Then again, his father never really said much to him at all. In some ways, Nathaniel thought that was almost worse. He had always known that his father hated him, but his mother was supposed to be the nice one. The good one. Nathaniel expected his father to hurt him, but every mean word from his mother’s lips was an icy knife in his chest. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As much as his mother’s words hurt, they could never cut as deep as the steel that his father liked to use on him. Nathaniel lived his life in fear of the days that his father would remember he existed, because those were the days that they had lessons. He hated the lessons. He always left them with new cuts or scrapes or bruises, and, on the days that Lola was there, worse. When Lola was there, Nathaniel tried not to leave his room at all. His fear only grew as he got older, and every early memory he had was tainted by his father’s shadow.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AGE FOUR </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel was four years old when he found the bird. It was lying on the ground beneath the big oak tree in his backyard, unmoving. He hadn’t noticed it at first, hidden as it was behind the overgrown grass of the yard. The grass wasn’t always overgrown, but he liked it better when it was. He could pretend to be a ninja and sneak through the grass. Sometimes he managed to get one of the maids to play ninja with him. He hadn’t seen her in a while though.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As he picked his way through the grass towards the bird, he noticed that the bird wasn’t completely still after all, but instead taking small, shuddering breaths. Did the bird have a family? Did it have other birds who could help it? He wondered how it had gotten hurt. Had it been another animal? Or just an accident? Did it fall? He wondered if it had been trying to fly away from home. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel had always been a fearless child, so he didn’t hesitate to pick the poor thing up and inspect it. It was blue, and fit perfectly in the palm of his tiny hand. He wondered if it was a baby bird, or just very small. One of the wings was bent at a weird angle, and he thought that it might have been broken.</p>
<p>His mom had given him a bandaid for one of his cuts the day before to make it better, so Nathaniel decided that he would just have to take the tiny bird to her. He ran through the house, his bare feet leaving little footprints in the freshly vacuumed carpets. The carpets in the house were always freshly vacuumed. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finally found her in the kitchen. She was directing what looked like a small army of cooks, probably making dinner for some sort of boring dinner party. Nathaniel didn’t care about any of that, he would probably have to stay in his room for the entire thing anyway. So he just barrelled past all of them and frantically held up the tiny bird to his mom. He never once doubted that she could make it better. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>This was before she had gotten bitter and angry of course, back when she still tried to protect him. At the time, he had thought she was being mean when she began frantically shooing him back out of the door and into the garden, looking over her shoulder with worried eyes. Of course, he had learned better when he saw his father round the corner and he found himself freezing in fear, his blood turning to ice in his veins, unable to stop the distressed tears from leaking from his eyes. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He didn’t think he would ever forget the feeling of emptiness and dread that filled him when his father killed the bird before his eyes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AGE FIVE</p>
<p> </p>
<p>By age five, Nathaniel was the quietest one in the house. He had never been a loud child per se, but all children were prone to making a certain amount of noise. Except Nathaniel. He had started actively not making noise around his house. It wasn’t safe. Sometimes he made a little game out of it, pretending that he was a tiger, sneaking through the forest in search of his prey. Sometimes he was an astronaut, floating through space, unable to talk because of the lack of oxygen. Sometimes though, he was just Nathaniel, a scared little boy who didn’t want to be seen wandering his own house. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was a cold and rainy day in September when he tentatively asked his mother when dinner was. Nathaniel hadn’t wanted to say anything, but it was too cold to go outside, so he had been forced to find things to do indoors, where the smells from whatever was being made in the kitchen were wafting about the house. As the day passed, Nathaniel grew more and more hungry, his stomach beginning to make unpleasant noises in protest. It was nearly five o’clock before Nathaniel had finally broken down and asked. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>His mom was becoming more and more unstable by the day, to the extent that Nathaniel couldn’t even recognize her some days. She never hugged him, in fact, she never even smiled in his direction anymore. The only sign he ever had that she cared at all, was when she would occasionally pat him on the head or ruffle his hair as she walked past. Nathaniel dreaded the day he would lose that too.</p>
<p>Even if his mom had been planning to answer the question - which Nathaniel couldn’t be sure she had - she never even had a chance. His father had been sitting at the other end of the room working on paperwork of some sort. Nathaniel had thought that he was far enough away, that he’d been quiet enough. But he hadn’t. His father overheard, and banned him from eating for three days.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After that, Nathaniel stopped asking for things.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AGE SIX</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It wasn’t until the mysterious disappearance of his private tutor that Nathaniel was finally allowed to go to school. He had liked his tutor well enough. She had been a bit dry to listen to, but certainly better than most of the other members of the house. Just then though, her disappearance was the best thing that could have ever happened to Nathaniel. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> He hadn’t asked to leave his house since the incident with the food, but it hadn’t stopped him from staring longingly at every school building that he passed when he accompanied his mother on shopping trips.<em> What was it like? </em> He wondered. Not having to be with your parents for most of the day? Getting to learn new things, and talk to people your own age? It sounded like heaven.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He had been right. Nathaniel was too quiet to really fit in with any of the other students, but that didn't really matter to him. He was at a <em> real school. </em> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>In his second week of classes, he learned about soulmates.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Apparently, not everyone had one, the girl that sat next to him said that her dad told her that it was actually <em> super </em> rare. Nathaniel had looked it up in the library later that day. Only one in every eight hundred people had a soulmate. (He liked math class. Numbers were cool. He liked that everything in the world could fit into numbers if you tried hard enough). He wondered if he was one of those people.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If you did have a soulmate though, you could… well, <em> talk </em>to them. No matter where you were, or where they were. Just by writing on your body. Nathaniel thought the concept was fascinating. That there could be someone on the other side of the planet that you could just talk to whenever you wanted. Like an instant friend. If you were connected, you had to be friends right? The girl sitting next to him agreed with him, so it must have been true. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not every mark that you made on yourself would show up on them though. Just the ones you meant to send to them. “So if a friend draws on your arm, it’s not going to work. Only you can send them a message,” his teacher said. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>They had been working on letters all week and most of the class could write their names; some could even read a little. For anyone who wanted to try contacting their soulmates, the teacher wrote “Hello my name is …” on the board.  Nathaniel was a bit insulted: he could already read a lot, and he had been able to write his name for an entire year.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> But while most of the class immediately scrambled to get a washable marker from the bucket on his teacher’s desk so they could draw on their arms, he remained in his seat. As much as he liked the idea of having a built-in friend, someone who couldn’t ignore him, or hurt him when he wasn’t quiet, he couldn’t stand the thought of opening up that pathway himself. Even if he had a soulmate, his father would just find a way to hurt them too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Nathaniel? Do you want to try writing to your soulmate?” his teacher asked him kindly when she saw that he hadn’t stood.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He shook his head. She smiled knowingly, but Nathaniel couldn’t help but think that there was no way she could possibly know anything about him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, why don’t you hold onto this, in case you change your mind?” she held out an orange marker from the bucket. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel wanted to say no. He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t safe, that he couldn’t have anything he wanted. Instead he just took the marker and slid it into his pocket.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AGE SEVEN</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel tried to put the whole talk of soulmates from his mind. He resisted the urge to write to his possible soulmate when he was pulled out of school again at age seven. The orange marker constantly weighed on his mind. It was eventually thrown in a box under his bed, where he hid everything else he didn’t want his father to find. Sometimes, he would pull out the box and just stare at it. Which was dumb. It was just a marker, except it wasn’t. Nothing in Nathaniel’s life was ‘just’ anything. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He had a different tutor this time, an angry balding man that Nathaniel distinctly disliked. His father seemed pleased by this, and it was all Nathaniel could do to just keep his head down and his spirits up. Resisting the urge to try and see if he had a soulmate just got harder and harder as the year progressed. It was a near constant hum in the back of his mind every time his father and Lola’s lessons got progressively harder and scarier. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>His only reprieve from his father and Lola’s ‘lessons’ was when his mother had signed him up for Exy in an effort to make him run off some energy, shortly after he was taken out of school. At first Nathaniel had been hesitant. It wasn’t like either of his parents to let him do something fun. For the first couple of weeks he was almost constantly on edge, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. After a while, though, he gradually began to let down his guard and enjoy himself. And from that tentative enjoyment spawned a whirlwind obsession. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>To say that Nathaniel liked the sport would be an understatement. He <em> loved </em> Exy. He loved the feeling of freedom he got when he ran across the court, and he especially liked feeling like he was a part of something. He was <em> good </em>at it, too. That kind of surprised him. His coach called it raw talent, but Nathaniel thought it may have just been years of running laps in his backyard because he had nothing else to do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He played backliner, which was cool, but he really wanted to try playing striker. His coach told him that he might be able to try it out next season. He’d also ruffled Nathaniel’s hair, and Nathaniel had just stood there in shock at the contact for a solid minute afterwards. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>AGE EIGHT</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was the middle of summer, a hot and humid night where sleep came fitfully and all you could do was just lay in bed with your clothes sticking to your damp body and try and decide if it was worth trying to take another shower in an effort to not feel sticky. Nathaniel hadn’t been asleep for long when he was woken up again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He wasn’t sure what exactly had woken him up. It could have been anything, really. He rarely got a full night’s sleep anymore anyway; high strung as he was becoming from spending too much time in Lola’s presence, and the heat and sickening feeling of being constantly covered in sweat didn’t help either. It wasn’t until he turned on the lamp beside his bed that he noticed the words scrawled across his arm in deep black ink. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Help me. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It took him a minute or so to process. He had a soulmate. All this time, he had always wondered if he did, and longed for a connection to someone, anyone, who might understand. And now he had one. And they were in trouble. Nathaniel jumped out of bed and scrambled to find a marker or pen or <em>something </em>so he could respond. He may not have wanted to open that connection to a soulmate himself - a part of his brain was still screaming at him that this was <em>dangerous </em>- but it was <em>his </em>soulmate. And if his soulmate was in trouble, it was his job to try and help. Nathaniel remembered the bright orange washable marker, thrown in the box beneath his bed. Finally, <em>finally, </em>he pulled it from its hiding place and sat on the floor by his bed to write his response.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> What’s wrong? </em>he wrote back, wondering if he should tell the other person his name. You were supposed to introduce yourself when you met someone new, right? Nathaniel wasn’t sure. It had been a long time since he’d last met someone new. But then again, the other person hadn’t introduced themselves either. He decided it was fine. Instead, he took to inspecting the handwriting while he waited for a response. It was large and shaky. It looked a little bit like the boy who had sat in front of him in school’s handwriting. He wondered if his soulmate was a boy or a girl. He wondered if they were nice. He wondered if they would like him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Who are you? </em> came a much smaller, but slightly less shaky response.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> My name is Nathaniel. Who are you? </em> he responded carefully.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Andrew. Why are you talking to me? </em>Andrew. Andrew Andrew Andrew. Nathaniel was almost giddy. He had a soulmate, and his name was Andrew.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> You’re my soulmate I guess, </em>he replied carefully. He didn’t want to rush Andrew. Maybe Andrew didn’t know about soulmates yet.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> That’s a lie. I can’t have a soulmate. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Why not? </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Foster kids don’t get soulmates, </em> came his quick response. Nathaniel noticed that the handwriting was shaking again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> I don’t know what that means, but obviously they do, since I’m talking to you. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> You don’t know what a foster kid is? </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> No. Should I? </em> Nathaniel was running out of room on his arm now. He wondered what you were supposed to do when you ran out of room. He could switch to his other arm, but he couldn’t write very well with his left hand so that probably wouldn’t work at all. Maybe his legs? How did he tell Andrew that he was switching to writing on his legs? His question was answered when Andrew responded. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Foster kids are the kids that are in the foster system. They don’t have parents that care about them, so the government takes them away and gives them to foster parents instead.  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel watched in fascination as the words appeared on his right leg one by one, the last line trailing down beneath the edge of his basketball shorts. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> I wish the government took me from my parents. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> No you don’t. </em> Nathaniel wondered if he could show Andrew some of the scars that criss-crossed his torso and his upper thighs. Almost immediately Andrew responded. He must have been wearing shorter shorts than Nathaniel. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Oh. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> If you look in a mirror, the ones on my chest are worse. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> You don’t mind me seeing? </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> If I minded, I wouldn’t have shown you. Besides. You’re my soulmate. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> You say that like it’s simple. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Isn’t it? </em> Andrew never answered the question, just went off on another topic, and Nathaniel had to crawl back into his bed and cover his face with his pillow to keep from squealing in excitement. He had a soulmate. He had a soulmate who liked him and wasn’t afraid of his scars and knew what it was like to not have parents who wanted him and could maybe even be his friend. It didn’t escape his notice though that Andrew never did say why he had said something in the first place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It wasn’t until the first rays of sun were peeking over the treetops in the park behind his house that Nathaniel stopped talking to Andrew. They’d run out of space multiple times over the course of the night and Nathaniel had to sneak into the bathroom to wash off his arms and legs so they could continue. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He had discovered so many cool things about Andrew. Like how he was a year older than Nathaniel, liked to read, and lived in California. He wasn’t really sure where California was, or if it was close to Baltimore, but Andrew said he had an ocean too so it couldn’t be that far, right? He would look it up later. Not even Lola’s particularly bloodthirsty training methods could kill his enthusiasm the next day. He had a <em> friend.  </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The next night, Nathaniel made sure to go over some rules with Andrew. They decided they could only write at night, when everyone else was asleep. And they would have a secret code to see if the other could respond. They would make a small dot on the back of their hands, and wait for the other person to make a dot in return before they started talking. (Andrew came up with it. He was so <em> smart. </em>Nathaniel wondered if it was because he was older, or if he was just unfairly cool.) Nathaniel didn’t know what his father would do if they were caught, but he didn’t intend to find out.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andrew was<em> his </em>secret. The biggest secret he had. The only secret he had really. Even if he weren’t though, Andrew was his, and no one else would ever be allowed to know about him.</p>
<p> Ever.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>AGE NINE</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel thought that the only thing that would be better than Exy and Andrew, was if he could have them both together. He tried to talk Andrew into joining his local Exy team, so whenever they met in person they could play together, but Andrew refused. It took three weeks of Nathaniel silently wondering why - he had learned early on that it was best not to question Andrew further if he hadn’t answered the first time - before Andrew finally confessed that he couldn’t afford to play Exy, even if his foster family would let him. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> I would share my money with you if you were here. Then we could really play together! </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Don’t think this means I care about Exy. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Maybe not, but you care about me. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Dumbass. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Yeah. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andrew and Nathaniel had developed something of a routine by the time it all fell apart. He would wake up, double check that he had erased all of his and Andrew’s conversations from the night before from his body, then go to breakfast and spend the rest of the day waiting until it was late enough that he could send that first dot. The only time he ever stopped thinking about Andrew was when he was playing Exy. He couldn’t play in Baltimore, his father had irritated enough people in Baltimore that none of his family were welcome in the city. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>So his mother took him to a different city. Even there, he had to go by a fake name to get in. He went by the name Abram, which despite being a falsehood, felt like the realest name he had. His mother never seemed as angry when she was calling him Abram. Andrew said that was stupid because of course he was real. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> What are you, fucking Pinnochio? </em>he would say. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Who’s that? </em>Nathaniel would always respond, despite knowing perfectly well who Pinnochio was. He just liked seeing the string of frantic script that would appear when Andrew would go on a rant about some dumb subject that neither of them actually cared about. It was the only time Andrew would talk really, and Nathaniel never grew tired of watching the other boy’s scrawl appear, letter by letter.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sometimes Nathaniel wondered what normal best friends were like. Did they also spend hours talking about anything and everything? Did they also worry about the other every time he mentioned his foster family, and find themselves doodling pictures of bees on their arm all the time, despite the risk, just because they knew that he liked them?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He wondered if other best friends were this happy whenever the other said anything about themselves or told them to take care of themselves in their own weird and grumpy way. It took him weeks of wrestling with the strange feelings before he finally decided on a label for it.</p>
<p><em> I love you. </em>he told Andrew one night, seemingly out of the blue.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> You don't even know what love means dumbass. </em>He was right of course. Nathaniel didn’t have a clue as to what love really meant. His father and Lola certainly didn’t love him. And he didn’t think that his mother loved him anymore either. But that just made his feelings for Andrew all the more real. Andrew cared about him in his own gruff, and blunt sort of way, and Nathaniel cared about Andrew more than anyone else in the world. If that wasn’t love, then what was? He told him so.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> That just means I get to decide what it means for myself. And I have decided that I love you. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> You can't just decide you love me just because your own family sucks. </em> Nathaniel could tell that Andrew didn’t actually believe what he was writing anymore. His writing had gotten loopier and shakier. Like it took effort for him to even write the falsehood. Andrew was a terrible liar.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> And you can't decide what I feel. So there. I love you and you're just going to have to deal with it. </em>Nathaniel could have sworn he could feel Andrew trying not to smile.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> You're so dumb. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Yeah. You don't have to say it back or anything. But I do love you Andrew and one day I'm going to beat up anyone who hurts you. </em> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not to be outdone, It was only two days before Andrew said it back. It was the first and the last time he would ever write it out - he didn’t care for that kind of permanent record of his vulnerability - but he would never let Nathaniel forget it, letting his actions speak for him. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>And sometimes, years later, in the dead of night when he's feeling particularly vulnerable, he'll whisper the words into the dark. Usually, the only ones around to hear him are the cicadas chirping outside and the moon shining through the window. Sometimes though, his best friend will respond in kind, voice clouded with sleep. Andrew will never admit that those are his favorite times.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AGE TEN </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Help me.  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel woke up to his arm aching. It was a feeling that usually didn’t happen often, and Andrew had felt it from Nathaniel far more than he had felt it from Andrew. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andrew had looked the phenomena up in the library one time. It was called a soul echo and had something to do with how particularly close soulmates could feel strong emotional outbursts from the other. Usually it was related to pain, but not always. Nathaniel thought it was fascinating and would have liked to look up more about it, but he didn’t have access to the library like Andrew did, and Andrew didn’t care that much.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The only time Andrew had ever actually mentioned feeling Nathaniel’s echo without previous prompting had been when he had broken his leg the year before trying a stupid Exy stunt that he and Andrew had drawn up on his arm the night before. (For someone who didn’t actually play Exy, Andrew was surprisingly good at coming up with new gameplans and moves.) Nathaniel had been more upset about being pulled out of Exy than he had been about the broken leg. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nathaniel stared at his arm. Andrew never wrote there without using the signal first. <em> Never. </em>The words were written in a scratchy red ink, completely different from Andrew’s normal handwriting, that dripped down the side of his arm in long streaks. Nathaniel realized with a sudden jerk that the words weren’t in ink at all, but in blood. He scrambled to find his marker.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Again? </em> The only other time he had felt Andrew this much had been the night they had first met. And Andrew still didn’t like to talk about that night.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Yes. </em>Came Andrew’s one word response.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> We need to escape. Both of us. </em>It wasn’t a new suggestion. Nathaniel had been bringing it up regularly since he was pulled out of Exy. His father had gotten so much worse since then, not even bothering to disguise his torture as teaching anymore, and giving him to Lola far more often. Andrew had been hesitant, though: he finally liked one of his foster families, and was hesitant to rock the boat. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Okay. </em> Andrew wrote, and that was the last of the opposition Nathaniel got. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It didn’t take long for Nathaniel to initiate his plan. He’d expected it to be harder- if he was being honest with himself- but as it was, his father and Lola were out of town on what he could only assume was his father’s ‘business’, and his mother hadn’t acknowledged his existence in months. Even as serendipitous as his father’s trip was, Nathaniel made sure to move as quietly as possible. He took the credit card he had watched his father misplace weeks before, quietly squirrelled away, and gathered all of the cash he could find around the house. His old school backpack was stuffed full of clothes and whatever snacks he could find, and his bright orange marker shoved into his pocket. He didn’t look back once as he left the house behind.  It would be nearly ten years before he would see the house he’d grown up in again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Two</span>
</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Nathaniel’s plan was very detailed in some ways, and… less so in others. He got out of his house and managed to make his way downtown towards the bus station without incident, but his first issue came with the knowledge that he was only ten, and people might find it weird that he was using a credit card. He hadn’t thought about that, and was at a bit of a loss at what to do. There was an ATM in the 7-Eleven around the corner from the bus station and he recalled a movie he’d seen once where they had been able to track someone by using the video cameras at an ATM, so he was very careful to cover his face with a scarf, glad that it wouldn’t look too suspicious in the late November cold.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The ATM told him that he could only take out $200 though, so he had to go to a different ATM nearby and take out more with that one. He got to four different ATM’s before his card was finally declined. He threw the now useless card into the trash can at the nearby gas station, and made his way to the bus station, suddenly glad he had brought his Exy racket with him, as it gave him a good cover for why he was looking for the bus station. People travelled for Exy games all the time right?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The first thing he did with his new cash was to buy a bus ticket to California. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Where are your parents dear?” the lady at the station asked him. Nathaniel froze in alarm. He hadn’t come up with a cover story. Why hadn’t he come up with a cover story?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Um. Uh. M-my mom is in the bathroom. With my baby uh sister?” Nathaniel tried to keep his voice from shaking. “I’m g-going to visit my dad. He’s working in California!” The last half wasn’t half bad. He might actually be decent at this whole lying thing.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“How exciting! How long has he been in California?” How long did dads usually spend in other states?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“T-two years.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And this is the first time you’ll be seeing him since then?” A nod. “Oh how lovely! I remember the first time my daughter came to visit me. My ex was furious!” Luckily the woman was too distracted telling her story to bother asking Nathaniel his age, or notice that he had only bought one ticket. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t until he was safely on the bus on his way to California that he remembered he could have just reused his Exy cover story from before. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Nathaniel didn’t really remember much of anything from the next few days. He spent the entire first half of the three day trip trying to imagine what Andrew looked like. He considered that he could just ask, but wrote that off. He wanted it to be a surprise. Or did he? His thoughts were running so fast that he couldn’t figure out what he wanted really. He was going to see Andrew! Not even the random guy that tried to steal his backpack when he changed buses in Kansas City could bring down his mood. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He spent most of Colorado thinking about what Andrew’s voice might sound like. Andrew always sort of talked like an old man. Did he sound like one too? It wasn’t until the bus stopped at a gas station in Utah somewhere that Nathaniel remembered that he should probably eat something. It was funny how easy it was to forget about things like that. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When he reached the California border, Nathaniel made Andrew write out directions to his house from the bus station in Oakland because he didn’t want to try and figure out how to use the computers at the library when he got there. Not when he was so close to finally meeting his best friend. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The thought that struck him when he looked up at the house that currently contained his best friend, was that Andrew’s house didn’t look all that different than Nathaniel’s own home. Sure it was on the other side of the country, and had completely different facades and architecture. But the energy around the house was the same. They both felt like sad houses pretending to be happy houses. Nathaniel pulled the orange marker from his pocket before he had a chance to second guess himself. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He carefully pulled the cap off of the marker and wrote across his arm, in large sloppy letters that Andrew was sure to see,</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>I’M HERE</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He walked to the front door. He was nervous. Of course he was nervous. He would be meeting his best friend, his </span>
  <em>
    <span>soulmate </span>
  </em>
  <span>in just a few moments. How could he not be nervous about it? He resisted the urge to curl up in a ball and hide in a corner the way he’d done when he was a kid - and contained all his anxiety to the gentle tapping of his fingers against his leg.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The door swung open wide, startling Nathaniel out of his self-inflicted anxious spiral. Nathaniel had never known what Andrew looked like, they’d never dared share addresses so they could send each other pictures, and they had never seemed to have gotten around to describing their physical traits to one another.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He was shorter than Nathaniel had imagined. Somehow, in his head, he had always thought of Andrew as a giant. A huge person to fit his huge personality and the huge presence he filled in Nathaniel’s life. He had blonde hair, too light to match the ‘california surfer’ look that you usually imagined. He was also pale, certainly paler than Nathaniel, who unlike Andrew, was never allowed to go outside. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Despite all of the mismatching images in Nathaniel’s head, he still would have known Andrew immediately. It was something about the way he held himself. Like he was simultaneously the scariest person you knew, and the saddest. Or maybe Nathaniel was just seeing in him what he wanted or needed to see. Like maybe Andrew wasn’t just a years long figment of his imagination.  </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Still. That was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>soulmate. That was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>Andrew. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re shorter than I imagined,” Andrew said. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Still taller than you,” Nathaniel retorted. The ghost of a smile flitted across Andrew’s face and he opened the door further. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Cass is gone right now so you can come in I guess.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Is she the one-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No.” Nathaniel just nodded. Andrew would either tell him, or he wouldn’t. If he was honest, he hadn’t thought she’d been the one. Andrew talked about her all the time. She was the only person in his life that he ever talked about in detail. But Nathaniel had to make sure. There was no way he was going to let anyone hurt Andrew while he was around. He’d even use his father’s lessons if he had to. For Andrew, he would do anything.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew had an unreadable look on his face. “Drake. His name was Drake.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>All Nathaniel could think to do was nod again. He had been wanting Andrew to open up to him for years, he had somehow never figured out what he would say if he did. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s gone now,” Andrew answered his next question before he had a chance to ask. Nathaniel just nodded a third time. Andrew led him to what Nathaniel assumed was his room. It was sparsely decorated and it was obvious that Andrew had been packing his things.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So what’s the plan?” Nathaniel sat cross legged on Andrew’s bed. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew mirrored him from the other side of the bed. “I thought you were the one with all of the plans?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“My plan ended when I got here. It’s your turn. What do you want to do?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew shrugged. “I have never thought about it really. There was only ever this.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Nathaniel nodded in understanding. “Well, what do people usually do when they’re on vacation?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew shot him a scathing look. “We won’t be on </span>
  <em>
    <span>vacation</span>
  </em>
  <span>. We’ll be, like, homeless. We’ll have to get jobs or something.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Nathaniel shrugged. “I mean, sure, but I stole a bunch of money from my dad, so we should at least do something cool first right?” Andrew looked very unhappy to have no proper retort. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine. So what do people do on vacation?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Go to the amusement park?” Nathaniel suggested. Andrew made a loud farting noise, which Nathaniel took to mean he disliked the idea. Nathaniel kind of wanted to go to an amusement park since he’d never been to one, but it was fine, they could do what Andrew wanted first.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I dunno. Go to Hawaii or something?” Andrew shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. It was only because Nathaniel knew him so well, that he noticed the tense set to his shoulders that said he was expecting to be judged. Nathainel hated that someone at some time had ever made Andrew feel like he was judged. But he also had no wish to go to Hawaii.  He wrinkled his nose at the suggestion.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Visit family?” he suggested instead. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we even have any family to visit?” Andrew asked. The boys stared at one another for a minute before Andrew finally spoke. “I don’t actually know my birth family. I could probably get my caseworker or Pig to tell me about them?” Nathaniel hummed to himself. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“If that doesn’t work, I have an uncle we could probably visit. He lives in England and hates my dad.” Andrew nodded in approval. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Does he have an accent like yours?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t have an accent?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You do so!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No I don’t!” Nathaniel retorted, but he was grinning and even Andrew's lips had quirked up. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm on tumblr @nerdzewordart if anyone wants to say hi. Tomorrow is the first day of classes, plus I work all day, so don't be surprised if the chapter is a bit later than the last few have been.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Three</span>
</h2>
<p>
  <span>Andrew’s case worker was a doddy old lady by the name of Sharon. He liked her well enough. She was probably the most stable person he had ever had in his life, so Nathaniel could appreciate her for that at least. Even if she kept putting Andrew in houses that hurt him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Andrew called her to ask about his birth family, she was more than willing to help, telling him she would see if his original birth certificate was sealed or not. Andrew wasn’t holding out much hope of it being unsealed, considering it had been twelve years and no one had mentioned trying to place him back with his birth family. Nathaniel remained hopeful though, and his optimism paid off when Sharon called Andrew back and told him that his records were sealed, but she had found reference to a first name that may or may not belong to his mother: Tilda. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It took the boys two days of scouring phone books in the library before they managed to find the name Tilda anywhere. The name was in a phone book for San Jose of all places, under the entry for </span>
  <b>Minyard, Tilda</b>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Nathaniel wondered if she had ever married. Was Andrew’s dad still out there somewhere? Was Andrew only one in a long string of unwanted children? Who was Tilda Minyard? Nathaniel thought the only way they would ever know would be to call. He told Andrew as much, but the only response he’d gotten was Andrew childishly sticking his tongue out at him. Sometimes Nathaniel felt like he was the older one. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Despite his antics earlier, as soon as the Spears had gone to bed, Andrew had pulled out the home phone. He carefully typed in the numbers Nathaniel had scrawled on his own arm while they were at the library. Nathaniel kindly didn’t mention Andrew’s shaking fingers. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The seconds between each ring seemed to stretch forever as Andrew and Nathaniel waited in the dark. Neither of them dared make a sound, heads pressed together so they could both hear the phone. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello?” The person who answered the phone was obviously not a woman, and certainly not old enough to have a twelve year old kid. Nathaniel looked to Andrew to make the first move. This was his family, Nathaniel wouldn’t interfere unless Andrew wanted him to. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Who is this?” Andrew demanded.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You called me! Who are you?” the voice demanded back, and Nathaniel could only grin at how similar the two of them were. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m looking for Tilda Minyard. Is this her number?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“This is her number, but my mom isn’t here.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So you’re her son?” Andrew confirmed. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes. You still haven’t said who you are though,” The boy on the line demanded. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m Andrew. I’m looking for my family.” Nathaniel was a bit surprised that Andrew was being that direct with this stranger, but he couldn’t figure out why he should be surprised really. Andrew had never cared much about subtlety. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh,” the other boy said. Then, “I don’t believe you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you need to believe me?” Andrew asked. He almost seemed pleased that the boy was questioning him. Nathaniel wouldn’t be surprised if he was. The boy obviously hadn’t thought this far ahead. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I-I Um. What’s your birthday?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“November 4th,” Andrew replied. “Yours?” The hand that wasn’t holding the phone searched out Nathaniel’s on the bed. That more than anything showed just how shaken he was. Andrew had only ever initiated contact with Nathaniel once in the three days he had been hiding out in the Spear’s house with him. And that had been two days before, when he grabbed his arm so he could drag him into Andrew’s room to avoid being seen. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“November fourth. Crazy right?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s your name?” Andrew demanded.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Aaron. Do you think…” Andrew only made a noncommittal humming noise and hung up the phone. Nathaniel didn’t say anything, just let Andrew hold his hand while he processed the new information. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I want to go to San Jose,” he finally announced. Nathaniel only nodded. He had had a feeling that would be where this conversation was leading. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay. Do you think he really is your brother?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew shrugged. “Not enough information.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You have the same birthday. Maybe you’re twins,” Nathaniel suggested. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t be dumb Neil. Who only gives up one of their twins?” Nathaniel stared at him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What did you call me?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Neil. Nathaniel is too long, plus, it’s connected to your dumb dad. Leave Nathan behind. You’re just Neil now. Besides. You can’t just run around with your real name dumbass. You’re a </span>
  <em>
    <span>missing person.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Natha- Neil just stared at him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You gave me a new name because you thought mine was too long?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well duh.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I already have a shorter name though.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Abram is your</span>
  <em>
    <span> secret </span>
  </em>
  <span>name. You can’t use that on a daily basis, moron. Besides. Neil is </span>
  <em>
    <span>my </span>
  </em>
  <span>name for you.” Neil grinned at him in delight.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Love you too, asshole.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up dumbass. And stop swearing. You’re a baby.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m only a year and three months younger than you, dick.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“My name is Andrew,” he responded dryly. Neil could only grin at him. He was far more excited about his new name than he thought he had ever been about anything before. Even Exy. He had a name that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his. </span>
  </em>
  <span>His and Andrew’s. It wasn’t just a name to help him pretend he was real, it was real. He was </span>
  <em>
    <span>real.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Neil didn’t know if he could name another time he had ever felt as light, or as real, as he felt right here, sitting together with Andrew on his bed, cradled under the light of the moon with one of Andrew’s old sweaters thrown over his thin frame and Andrew’s hand clasped lightly in his own. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They started their trip the next morning by taking the BART (after Neil had spent a solid twenty minutes cackling over the name and not listening when Andrew explained that “No, It’s just the subway. It’s short for Bay Area Rapid Transport.”) to San Mateo, where they caught a bus to San Jose. The mapquest directions that Neil had printed out at the library the moment it had opened were still clutched tightly in his hand. Andrew for his part, had spent the entire morning pretending that he wasn’t nervous about meeting his maybe-brother. Neil could tell the facade was a lie because every time Andrew sat down for more than five minutes his leg would shake almost imperceptibly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil thought that Andrew was in denial. Aaron was almost certainly his twin brother. Coincidences like that didn’t just </span>
  <em>
    <span>happen. </span>
  </em>
  <span> Either way, she was the only Tilda they had found in the phonebook, so unless Andrew’s mom had moved away since giving him up - which was possible of course - this was the only Tilda in the bay area. Neil could tell that Andrew was intrigued by Aaron, and to a certain extent, his own past. He had always loved mysteries. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil was just along for the ride really. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>If he was being honest, which he always was with Andrew, he preferred it that way. He would follow his best friend anywhere, and take his lead on anything. If Andrew decided that Aaron was his brother, and dragged him along with them, Neil would agree. If he decided Aaron wasn’t worth his time, well Neil would just go along with that too. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When they got to San Jose, they found a payphone and called Aaron again. Neil asked Andrew what he would do if it wasn’t Aaron who answered. He didn’t respond, which probably meant he had a plan. It turned out to be a useless worry however, as Aaron once again answered the phone.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Park. Five minutes.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Andrew? Which park dumbass?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“The one closest to your house dipshit.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know if I like you knowing where I live. And don’t call me that.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Five minutes,” Andrew repeated before hanging up again and crossing the playground to join Neil on the swings. Neil pushed himself faster on his swing, intentionally kicking Andrew every time. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you like being a massive asshole all the time?” Neil asked Andrew conversationally. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Stop that.” Neil stopped kicking him. “It’s not that I’m an </span>
  <em>
    <span>asshole.</span>
  </em>
  <span> It’s just that everyone </span>
  <em>
    <span>else </span>
  </em>
  <span>is a moron.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Mmm. Sounds like something an asshole would say. It’s okay though. I love you anyway.” Andrew rolled his eyes but Neil could tell he was pleased with the verbal affection despite it. He grinned back at Andrew’s grumpy face before he noticed the figure walking towards them across the park. He stopped swinging. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Incoming,” Neil said, he nodded his head toward the approaching figure. Andrew turned to watch as well. Aaron looked </span>
  <em>
    <span>exactly </span>
  </em>
  <span>like Andrew. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What year were you born?” Neil asks him. Aaron eyed him suspiciously.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“1986. Why?” Neil just grinned triumphantly and turned to Andrew. “Told you. I told you that you were twins!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up junkie.” Now that Neil was looking closer at Aaron though, he could see the telltale signs of abuse maring his features. The fading black eye, the slight limp. The way he winced when he turned his head to the left. Neil saw it from years and years of looking in the mirror. Andrew did too. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Who’s doing that to you?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Aaron furrowed his eyebrows, like he had no idea what Andrew was talking about. He was a good actor, far better than Andrew anyway. But Neil could see the flash of fear in his eyes, and the way he avoided eye contact.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Liar.” He and Andrew spoke together. Neil wondered if that was a soulmate thing, or just because they spent so much time together.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” Neil snorted at the throwback to when he and Andrew first started talking, back before they had learned to rely on one another. Before they were best friends. Before Neil knew he could trust Andrew with all of his secrets. Back when Neil hadn’t known how to say that it hurt, so he just said, “I’m fine.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t lie,” he warned Aaron.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not lying!” Aaron said hotly. Andrew stood up abruptly, startling Aaron so he fell back onto the ground. Andrew crouched beside him and Aaron winced again. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you done?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Stop lying. You don’t have to lie to us. Neil and I have your back now. We’re not going to let anything happen to you anymore. All you have to do is trust us. Got it?” Andrew held out his hand.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Aaron scowled again, but took Andrew’s hand anyway. “Fine. I guess.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil had known from the moment Aaron answered the phone, that he would end up in Andrew’s circle. Andrew couldn’t help it really. He hated seeing other people hurt when they didn’t deserve it. Neil could name at least six different kids from the four foster homes he had been in since they’d met that Andrew had put himself in the line of fire to protect. A real brother? Andrew was never going to let him out of his protection.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Welcome to the family,” Neil told him lightly, still swinging back and forth. Aaron just continued to look baffled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where would we even go?” Aaron demanded. “What would we do? We’re only </span>
  <em>
    <span>twelve, </span>
  </em>
  <span>we can’t exactly get jobs.”  He stopped swinging and turned to stare down Andrew and Neil.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Anything we want,” Andrew responded, unbothered. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Where would we live?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Anywhere but Baltimore,” Neil said immediately. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t even have a </span>
  <em>
    <span>plan</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Aaron looked like he was about to pull his hair out. Andrew shrugged. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So make one. We came here because we were looking for family, but we’re done with that now, so you pick where we go next.” Aaron stared at him, mouth open slightly with a retort he obviously couldn’t find on his lips. Neil wondered if anyone had ever let him choose what he did or where he went before. Had he grown up like Neil, trapped in his own home like a bird in a cage, always watched, but never cared for? Or had he been more like Andrew, left alone and forgotten until they wanted something from him?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We- we could have other family. Mom never talks about them, but my- our dad had to have had other family right? And I mean- even if we can’t find them, I- we have a cousin. His name is Nicky. He’s pretty cool. Kind of weird.” Andrew nodded and turned to look at Neil, who just nodded. He didn’t care where they went, as long as he was with Andrew. Andrew turned back to Aaron.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Right. How do we find this other family?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil was kind of expecting Aaron’s house to be a mess. It was, compared to his parent’s house, and even the Spear’s. But it was mostly clutter from what he could tell. He was pretty sure it wasn’t normal to have that many needles lying around, but who was he to know anything about normal families or houses? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aaron led them to what Neil assumed was his mom’s room, and dug around under the bed for a few moments before pulling out a few photo boxes and an album. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I haven’t looked through these in a while, and my mom never does, but maybe there’s some sort of clues in here. I mean, we have to have </span>
  <em>
    <span>some </span>
  </em>
  <span>grandparents.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Right.” Andrew nodded his head once. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we know what we’re looking for?” Neil asked, taking one of the boxes from Aaron.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“A name?” He replied, but he sounded unsure. Andrew shrugged. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Name works.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Right,” Neil said in agreement.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The three of them took their boxes to Aaron’s room, where they spread them across the floor. They predictably weren’t in any sort of organization, so the first thing they all did was sort through the papers and photos to make sense of what was there. The only thing in any sort of order at all, was the wedding album. Andrew laid out all of the photos in neat little stacks based on the dates written on the back, or in some cases, the clothing or location in which they were taken. By the time he was done, they had a somewhat coherent timeline of their mom’s life pre- twin. She looked happy in all of the pictures.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil could see how the twins were related to her; it was in the shade of her hair, and the slant of her nose. However he also knew exactly who their father was with the first picture. The resemblance was uncanny. The twins shared his sharp jawline and his light complexion; he was also blond, but a darker shade. The biggest resemblance though was in his eyes. They were the same dark green, hazel color that the twins shared. Before making this trip, it had never occurred to Neil that anyone else could possibly share an eye color with Andrew. Yet here was evidence that there were two. The twin’s father also wore glasses. Neil wondered if that was hereditary too, if Andrew would one day need glasses. He tried to imagine his best friend in glasses, but he couldn’t do it.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Their father had died six months before they were born, according to the death certificate they had found in one of the boxes. His name had apparently been Joseph. Joseph Michael Minyard. Neil wondered if that’s why the twin’s mom had given up Andrew, if the name had held too much weight for her to carry. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It would still be a stupid reason to give up your kid though.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil decided right there that if he was ever going to have a kid, it would be a kid that no one else wanted. A kid like him, like Andrew, and Aaron too. He would love a kid like that the same way he loved Andrew. No one should ever feel like they’re unlovable, he decided. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil turned back to the stack he was looking through. So far he had only found one picture of Joseph’s mom. It was predictably only labeled with a light </span>
  <em>
    <span>Joseph and his mom, </span>
  </em>
  <span>written on the back in blue ink. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, that’s your grandmother,” Neil showed the other boys the picture. “Now we just need to find her name.” Aaron was the one who finally found it, flipping through the wedding album. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Here she is,” Aaron said, tapping on the picture in the book. Andrew and Neil both leaned around him to get a closer look. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Says her name is Martha,” Andrew spoke up.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Where?” Neil asked, confused. Andrew just pointed to the names written in tiny letters at the bottom of the page. Aaron just stared at the picture for a bit longer. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“She looks so happy,” he said sadly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Who? Martha?” Personally, Neil couldn’t really tell how happy Martha was, she had a weird half smile that could have been real, or it could have been a fake smile for the camera.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No. Mom.” Oh. Neil could see that. She looked happy. Happier than Martha anyway.“Weddings are supposed to be happy right?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah but- I’ve never seen mom that happy.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh.” Neil could relate. He didn’t think he’d ever seen his mom truly happy, and certainly not when his father was around. They all stared at the picture in silence for a moment.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait. Her name’s Martha Chadwick? Not Minyard?” Neil pointed out. Andrew’s head shot back up from the papers he had gone back to reading. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Chadwick?” I saw something for that name earlier. Hold on.” Andrew scrambled to sort through one of his piles before pulling out an envelope. It hadn’t actually contained anything, but Andrew wasn’t concerned with what it contained at the time, just getting all of the dates in order. It didn’t matter anyway as the only thing the boys were concerned about was the return address written on the top left corner. From Martha Chadwick.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I still hate online classes and zoom is the worst. Here's a new chapter because apparently only ao3 has it's shit together enough to actually run when I need it to</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<h2>
  <span>Chapter Four</span>
</h2>
<p>
  <span>They caught the first bus to Nebraska that they could. While Andrew and Neil hadn’t had much of a problem getting from San Francisco to San Jose without an adult, Neil was elated to finally be able to use his Exy excuse, as Aaron also had some Exy gear that could be used as what Andrew liked to call a prop, to Neil’s great annoyance. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Aaron was weird, Neil decided. Not that he knew what </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird </span>
  </em>
  <span>meant; he didn’t really have much experience with people other than Andrew and his parents, but he decided that Aaron was weird anyway. For one, Aaron seemed creeped out that none of the adults seemed to question them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Would you rather they stopped us?” Andrew asked him with an eye roll.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes! Yes I would! Adults are supposed to care about kids!” Both Andrew and Neil snorted in laughter.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Since when?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What the hell happened to you two? Jesus.” Aaron didn’t say anything about it after that.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil occupied himself with looking out the window in silent contemplation. He hadn’t had the chance to really observe his surroundings when he’d made his first cross country trip. Utah was boring. He wasn’t sure why he expected anything different if he was being honest. Utah just sort of sounded like a boring state. What even happened in Utah? He bet it was nothing, if the surroundings were anything to go by. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He wondered what they would find when they got to Nebraska. Would Andrew’s grandmother still live in the same house she had lived in ten years ago? Was she even still alive? They hadn’t been able to find a phone number for her, so they were going in blind. It made Neil think about his own extended family. Did he have grandparents somewhere? He knew he had at least one uncle on his mom’s side. He actually still had Uncle Stuart’s number memorized, just in case. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span>He remembered Stuart, sort of. He remembered him being nice. He had snuck Neil cookies when his parents weren’t looking. But then again, Neil hadn’t actually seen Stuart since he was seven. Still, he thought it was a risk he might be willing to take if necessary. Stuart hadn’t liked his dad. He remembered that vividly. In fact, Neil had overheard him trying to convince his mother to not go back to the states. He asked her to stay in the UK with Neil, offered to get Neil private tutors, or enroll him in private school.</span><em><span> Anything you want.</span></em> <em><span>Please Mary. That man is going to kill you one day. </span></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>So yeah, that was his mom’s side. Which was an option, but what about his dad’s side? Did he have other aunts and uncles? Cousins? Grandparents? If so, did they know about his dad? Did they know what he did? Who he hurt? Did they pretend he didn’t exist? Or did they approve of it? Were they a part of his father’s business somehow?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t something Neil had ever really thought about before. When he was living in his parent’s house, he hadn’t really had the freedom to think about things like family. It was kind of hard to care about some mystical extended family when you were being tortured regularly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He was knocked out of his deep thoughts when Andrew leaned his head on Neil’s shoulder. Neil stared at him from the corner of his eye, a bit alarmed that Andrew had initiated contact at all. Andrew just glared at him, daring him to comment on it. Neil only mentally shrugged and rested his own head on Andrews to settle in for a nap. He noticed Aaron’s confused look before drifting off, but decided it wasn’t worth thinking about just then.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This is actually super convenient, because even if she doesn’t live there anymore, Nebraska is still on the way to South Carolina, where Nicky lives.” Aaron had a map of the United states laid out on the table in front of them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hm,” Andrew said, pointedly getting crumbs from the food cart sandwich Neil had bought him for lunch all over the map. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Aaron glared at him, but didn’t say anything. Neil just sighed. This had been going on for the entire trip, and Neil was getting really tired of their petty squabbling. It was better than them actually fighting though, he supposed. Aaron had been placed in charge of the map, because he’d wanted to feel helpful, but he kept trying to direct Andrew, which Andrew deeply resented. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil couldn’t really be bothered to get too involved though; he was preoccupied watching the news in all of the places they stopped, trying to make sure that none of their faces had been made public. There was no way in hell that he was going to get caught and dragged back to his father. He might actually rather die.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>So far though, there hadn’t been anything about any of them disappearing. Neil didn’t tell Aaron. He’d just be concerned again. If Neil had to guess, he’d say that the police probably weren’t expecting them to cross county lines, let alone state borders. And they definitely weren’t looking for all of them to be together. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil wondered where he would be if he didn’t have Andrew. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dead, probably</span>
  </em>
  <span>, his brain helpfully supplied. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After their short layover in Denver, where they had to switch buses, the boys continued their journey to Nebraska. Neil was annoyed. Colorado had at least been interesting to look at; Nebraska was boring again. It was like Utah, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>worse.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Neil had liked Colorado though. He thought he might like to live in Colorado one day. Andrew hadn’t looked out the window once since they had started their journey. Actually, Andrew hadn’t said much, other than to make the occasional jab at Aaron, since they had left California either.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey.” Neil nudged him, when they were about two hours from their destination.  “You alright?” Andrew just shrugged one shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Would it be easier to write it?” Neil asked carefully. It was obvious that there was something on Andrew’s mind. He nodded and pulled a pen from his pocket.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I think I have unfinished business.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He wrote. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Business?” Neil asked. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Him. Drake. He’s still out there. He could hurt someone else.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil hummed in response, suddenly understanding Andrew’s dilemma. He didn't want to have to tell anyone what happened to him, but he didn’t want it to happen to anyone else either. Neil couldn’t say he blamed him. He didn’t even know what had happened to Andrew and he still wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone. And he certainly didn’t want to force Andrew to talk about it if he didn’t want to.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What if you leave an anonymous tip to the police?” Neil suggested. “You should be a missing person by now. Tell the police some bullshit story about hearing screaming from the house that night or something.” Andrew nodded resolutely. “It would be better if you could send it to someone specific though. Do you know of anyone in the police department that might be willing to believe you?” Andrew was silent for a moment. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Higgins. He believed me about Stephen. He would definitely know it was me submitting it though.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Does that matter though? As long as he can’t trace it back to your location, it might help you if he knew it was coming from you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Mmm. Maybe.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t have to decide right away,” Neil said before resting his head on Andrew’s shoulder and trying to get some more sleep before they had to try and find a way to get an hour outside the city where the buses didn’t run.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Five</span>
</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The answer was, of course, hitchhiking. They managed to look pitiful enough that an old man that was going in that direction picked them up in his pickup. Neil spun him a tale about how their parents had just died and they were supposed to go to live with their grandmother, but their grandmother couldn’t drive, so they were stuck. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It worked so well, that the man not only drove them into town, but up to their destination directly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Should I be concerned with how good at that you’re getting?” Aaron asked after the man had driven away.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Absolutely not,” Neil responded pleasantly, before ringing the doorbell. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The woman who answered the door was nothing like what Neil had imagined, based on the pictures they had of her in the wedding album. She was tall. Taller than Neil was anyway, and much taller than the twins. She had long hair, tied back in a braid down her back. It was turning white now, silver strands mixing in with the blonde at her temples and scattered throughout. Neil thought she looked rather distinguished. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She was wearing a bathrobe and a pair of pink plaid pajama pants. They were so unlike what he was expecting a grandmother to wear, that he was momentarily taken aback. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I help you?” she asked. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you Martha Chadwick?” Andrew demanded, and Neil could only sigh at his soulmate’s complete lack of tact.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I am,” she responded. She eyed the boys closely, no doubt waiting for them to explain what they were doing there. Neil answered for them, since one glance at Aaron told him that he was still staring in shock, and Andrew would undoubtedly be terribly rude.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi. We found this,” Neil handed her the picture of her with her son, “in Aaron’s mom’s stuff. We think you might be their grandmother.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She stared at the picture for a long moment. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I think you boys had better come in.” Martha lead the boys into the house and through the front room before Neil had a chance to really look around. She gestured for the boys to sit at the table, and pulled down four mugs from the cupboard.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you boys hungry? I was about to make breakfast.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes please,” Neil said. Andrew winced beside him, but Neil just pinched him and carried on. He didn’t know why Andrew hated the word so much, but he really shouldn’t show how much the word rattled him every time someone used it. That was just asking for someone to use it against him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright. While I make this, why don’t you boys start from the beginning, and tell me who you are and how you got all the way out here.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“By bus mostly,” Andrew responded. Neil pinched him again. Aaron apparently found his voice again because he started to explain his side of it. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil zoned out almost immediately, using that time to look around the kitchen. It was sunny, and clean and obviously well loved, with cow shaped flour and sugar canisters and a set of cow dish towels to match. The entire kitchen smelled like buttermilk and blueberries, most likely from the pancakes she was making.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil kind of wished he could explore the rest of the house more. You could tell a lot about a person by the sort of things they keep around. For instance: if anyone had ever gone in the basement of his owl house, they would have quickly realized that his father was an actual monster. There was something to be said about snooping.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Your mother did </span>
  <em>
    <span>what?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Oh if I ever get my hands on that woman. I cannot believe she would - well, actually I can, but I don’t have to like it!” She interrupted Aaron after hearing that Tilda had given up Andrew for adoption. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” Andrew asked. Neil let out a breath of air. Life was always easier when Andrew was actually interested in the subject at hand. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Your mother was sick. Probably still is.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean by sick?” Andrew demanded again. Martha considered her answer for a moment.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Sometimes… sometimes our brains don’t make enough of the chemicals we need, so we have to take medicine to fix it, the same way we would if we were sick anywhere else. But there are some people don’t know they’re sick, or they don’t like taking the medication for whatever reason, and oftentimes they need other people to help them out. Your mother has a severe case of what’s called depression. Her depression makes her do things that seem a little strange to us, because it makes her feel things that she wouldn’t normally feel.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t get me wrong boys, I liked her well enough, and heaven knows Joey loved her. But she refused to get help, insisting that she was fine. There was nothing I could do, she would never have forgiven me if I’d had her put into rehab or the like. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Joey, bless him, was good with her. He evened her out sometimes, calmed her down. She was good for him too I suppose, she made him bolder. You know, she never contacted me after Joey passed. She said it was too hard to continue talking to me. It hurt too much. And well, I didn’t want to hurt her further. Now, seeing you boys, I wish I had pushed a bit longer. I never even knew she was pregnant.” Andrew nodded and seemed satisfied with that answer, settling back into his chair. Neil however just had more questions. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>How had Joseph Minyard died? Why did Tilda keep his last name if Andrew’s name had hurt her so much? Why didn’t she want help? Why didn’t she tell Martha about her grandkids? Andrew leaned over and flicked him on the forehead to knock him out of his thoughts and Neil scowled at him. Andrew only stuck his tongue out at him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When he finally tuned back into the conversation, he realized that Aaron was almost done explaining how they had gotten there. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“- so then we caught a bus here so we could meet you.” Neil figured he had probably given her the condensed version of the story then.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That is quite the story there kids. So Neil, how did you and Andrew meet?” she set a plate of pancakes in the middle of the table. “Aaron dear, would you grab the plates for me? - that cupboard there, yeah.” Neil eyed the pancakes curiously. They were far lumpier than the ones that the cooks made at his old house, and these ones had chocolate chips. He’d never had chocolate chips in his pancakes before. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve been best friends for like, forever,” he answered her absentmindedly as he watched her pull out the toppings, which for some reason included a tub of vanilla ice cream. Andrew also looked intrigued by this development. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s nice. Won’t your parents be worried about you though?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No, I don’t think so.” Andrew nudged him to continue. Neil shot him another glare but continued anyway. “I left them a note that I’m staying with my uncle. They don’t really get on with my uncle, so it will be a while before they will want to see me.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright then. We will be talking about </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>later. For the moment though, let's eat.”  Neil grinned and started shoveling pancakes onto his plate while Aaron asked Martha about what she did for a living.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t until they were done eating that a thought occurred to Neil.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What happened to their grandfather?” he asked as he helped her carry dishes to the sink. She stopped and looked down at him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you think happened to him, kid?” Neil just shrugged. He didn’t have grandparents, he didn’t know what grandparents did when they weren’t being grandparent-y.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She laughed and continued walking. “He lives next door.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Why doesn’t he live here?” Aaron asked, and even Andrew looked curious. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We got divorced oh, 20 years ago now? It was shortly after I met my Carrie.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Carrie?” Andrew asked. Neil piled the dishes into the sink as she talked. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh! Carrie is my partner. She’s working in Texas for a few months - some big programming job I can’t begin to understand. She’ll be back before Christmas next week.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Andrew stood and stared at her for a moment and Neil eyed him curiously. He’d have to ask him later what about the statement had confused him so much. She turned around and looked at them, her hands on her hips.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Right. So you boys are welcome to stay here for a bit, but you have to do your share of the work. So Aaron, you’re washing, Andrew you can rinse, and Neil, you are on drying duty.” Andrew gave her a mocking salute, but moved to fill up the sink anyway. Neil was just glad he’d been placed on drying duty, because he didn’t have a clue how to wash dishes. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When all of the breakfast dishes were stacked in the drying rack and the counters had been wiped off (Martha had had to make Neil redo it twice before she had been happy with it. Apparently wiping down the counters did not just mean wiping it with a cloth once), Martha shoo’d them in the direction of the bedrooms.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright boys. You all look like you haven’t slept in three days, and haven’t showered for even longer. All of you will be taking a shower, then going to bed. You can all decide what order you shower in.” She pointed down the hallway. “Bathroom is on the right, the spare room is on the left, I hope you boys don’t mind sharing a bed. There are towels under the sink in the bathroom. Don’t drown. I have some work to finish, but you can come find me if you need me.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She ruffled Neil’s hair as she walked passed, and he felt a bit like he was going to pass out. When had been the last time someone had ruffled his hair like that? Andrew grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hallway. A glance over told him that he’d done the same to Aaron. He grabbed his bag off of the floor where he had dropped it earlier as Andrew dragged them past, secretly smug because Andrew would have to make a separate trip to grab his bag because he was so impatient.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The spare room had obviously belonged to Joseph. It was painted a nice blue, and there were sports posters on the walls. Neil wrinkled his nose at the sight of the baseball that sat on the dresser. There were more pictures on the dresser too: Aaron caught sight of one of his parents, probably from when they were in highschool, judging by the letterman jacket Joseph was wearing. Neil still didn’t understand what was so captivating about those pictures.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew shut the door to the room, then swiveled to face them. “I call this meeting to order.” Obviously he’d been watching old crime shows in his free time. Not surprising really, since he’d always had an interest in the legal system and old buddy cop movies.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Aaron!” Andrew pointed. “What do you think?” Aaron turned to look at him, putting the picture back on the dresser. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I like her. She’s nice, and she’s letting us stay here for only a couple of chores. Even those aren’t so bad with all three of us.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil nodded. Niceness was not a very reliable system of measurement, but it was a very important one. His Uncle Stewart, from what he could remember, was a level 6. His mother was a level 1 or 2 depending on the day. His father didn’t even have a level. Andrew had ranked Cass as a level 9, but that had gone down to a level 7 in the weeks since Thanksgiving.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Neil had never actually met a level 10. He wasn’t sure they existed, if he was being honest.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew turned to Neil next, and pointed. Neil stood upright and rattled off his thoughts in what he hoped was a succinct manner. “Level 8, so far I like her, she makes good pancakes, actually listens when we talk, and doesn’t lie.” Neil hated it when people lied almost as much as Andrew did.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I will wait for a bit longer before I make a final decision, but so far the verdict is positive. We will reconvene in two days.” Neil rolled his eyes but he offered Andrew a salute anyway. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I call first dibs on the shower!” Aaron said, scrambling past them, the photo seemingly forgotten. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey!” Neil protested weakly. He didn’t particularly care about getting the shower first, but it was the principle of the thing. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Neil.” Andrew stopped him when he went to throw himself on the bed. Martha was right: he was tired. He thought he might sleep for days. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah?” he asked. Andrew was making a weird face. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What - what did you think about what Martha said about her partner?” That was weird, Andrew never stuttered. Mostly because he never said anything without absolute intention, but still. Neil’s forehead wrinkled and he shot his best friend a puzzled glance. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s cool I guess? I dunno. Am I supposed to think something about it?” He wondered if it was one of those social clues he was always missing. Sure, he could quote entire sections of Star Trek, but the minute he didn’t realize someone was trying to insult him, he never heard the end of it. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So you didn’t think it was wrong?” Neil was even more confused. What was supposed to be wrong? He thought over their earlier conversation, but nothing stood out as being out of the ordinary.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No? Was I supposed to?” Andrew shook his head. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No. It’s nothing.” It certainly didn’t seem like nothing to Neil if Andrew was making such a big deal out of it, but since he didn’t know what was wrong, he couldn’t exactly make Andrew explain himself. He opted just to keep an eye on Andrew and wait for him to explain what was bothering him. Neil was good at waiting for Andrew to come to him. He always did eventually.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After the boys had taken showers and napped for a few hours, their grandmother made them don coats and hats before leading them out the door to stomp their way through the snow to their grandfather’s house next door. She explained on the walk over that she and Henry were divorced, but only because they didn’t work as partners; they were still best friends and he was very supportive of her relationship with Carrie. When they got there, she didn’t even bother knocking, just walked right in. Neil wondered if he and Andrew would one day have houses next door to each other. The thought didn’t sit right. Somehow he couldn’t imagine ever living anywhere without Andrew right beside him. He decided the thought was irrelevant and pushed it towards the back of his mind.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oi Henry! Come meet your grandkids!” she yelled into the house as she led the boys into the kitchen, where she promptly began raiding his fridge. Neil looked around. The house was much like Martha’s, maybe a bit less cluttered, but it felt like a happy house. It was smaller than Martha’s though, and there was only room for two chairs and a stool at the small kitchen table. Neil was faster than the twins, so he snatched one of the chairs before they had the chance, then watched in amusement as they proceeded to wrestle one another for the other one. Andrew won, and he stuck his tongue out at Aaron in haughty glee. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Grandkids? Did you adopt another cat again Martha?” A man with a neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard and long hair wandered into the room from the other door. Martha didn’t look amused by the question. He was also tall. Neil wondered how short their mom was if they got the short genes when the rest of their family was tall. He had a light crinkle to his eyes that told them he smiled a lot, and a slight rasp to his voice that told them he smoked a lot too. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s Aaron and Andrew. Joey’s kids. The redhead is Neil. He’s their best friend.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil blinked. You could have more than one best friend? How many best friends could you have before you couldn’t call them best friends anymore? He would have asked Andrew, but a glance beside him told him that Andrew was just as baffled by this development as he was. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well damn. That’s definitely not what I was expecting when you said you wanted me to meet the grandkids. Nice to meet you boys.” He stuck his hand out for them to shake, which Aaron did without prompting, but Neil had to elbow Andrew in the ribs in order to get him to put his hand out. One day, Neil would be able to take his best friend into public, and have him act polite. One day. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“As your grandmother has probably told you, I’m Henry. How long are you boys in town?” The boys all looked at one another then shrugged in unison. They hadn’t exactly thought that far ahead. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Your grandchildren decided they were going to run away from home,” Martha informed him flatly. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Really? How’d you all get all the way out here then?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Bus,” Andrew and Aaron said in unison. They had been doing it more and more often recently, and it never ceased to amuse Neil.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And some hitchhiking for the last bit,” Neil reminded them. Martha just sighed at them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Really? And no one stopped you?” Henry questioned, starting to look a bit worried.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s what I said!” Aaron exclaimed, pointing at his grandfather in triumphant glee. “I told you guys it was weird that no one cared that we were a bunch of kids taking a bus across the country!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil shrugged, unconcerned. “It worked better for us though, didn’t it?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s not the </span>
  <em>
    <span>point, moron.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“As fascinating as this conversation is, I was going to take the boys into town and get something to eat, would you like to join us Henry?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Absolutely. Let me just grab my coat.” Martha turned towards the boys. “If you boys could please-” Neil pinched Andrew before the word was even out of her mouth, earning himself a glare, but he didn’t flinch until after Neil pinched him, so that was a start at least. “-keep the conversation away from incriminating things, such as the fact all three of you are runaways.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” Aaron said. Neil nodded, and Andrew gave his little two fingered salute again. Neil thought he might be trying to make it his trademark. He wasn’t really sure if it was catching on or not though: at the moment it just sort of looked sarcastic. Which may have actually been Andrew’s goal, but Neil knew he would never give him a real answer if he asked. Andrew was like that</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They all piled into Martha’s Honda. Aaron had wanted to take Henry’s truck - apparently he’d always wanted to ride in the back of one - but because it was so cold out, Martha shot that idea down right away, so into the Civic they clambered. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Henry did tell them that he would take them all sledding in the truck sometime later that week if they wanted. None of them had ever been sledding before, Andrew and Aaron because they had never left the bay area, and Neil because he had never really left his house. All of them were very enthusiastic about that idea. Martha just shook her head and smiled. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She took them to a small pizza shop in the center of town. Neil was fascinated. He’d only had pizza a handful of times, the cooks had made it from scratch once or twice when he was still living in Baltimore, and he and Andrew had ordered Domino’s when he was staying with him in Oakland. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>This pizza was better than all of those.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You boys can order what you want. Henry and I can share one.” Before Martha had even finished her sentence, Andrew was pointing accusingly at Neil. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No pineapple!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Aaron gasped in shock. “Neil you heathen! You put pineapple on your pizza?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s called a Hawaiian pizza, and it’s delicious. Just because you two don’t have any taste, doesn’t change the facts.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I can’t believe we’re friends.” Aaron shook his head in mock disgust. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Please, you would both be completely lost without me there to show you the light.” Andrew shoved him and Aaron stuck his tongue out while Martha and Henry looked on in amusement. Neil just laughed. Was this what having a real family was like? Even if it wasn’t, he decided that this was now his family and he would do anything to protect them. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Me, drinking wine and eating birthday cake in my underwear, editing fanfiction while my professor rants about dictionaries in the background: Depression who?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Six</span>
</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The boys had settled into a strange routine by the time Carrie returned home. Every morning they would get up and lay out their tasks for the day. They all had to help with chores, but aside from Neil being appalling at all of them, that wasn’t too bad. In between chores though, they would play board games with Martha or bother Henry while he was working. They had gone outside and played in the snow a few times, and Martha and Henry had taught them how to build a snowman, but they still had yet to go sledding. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apparently Carrie loved sledding, and would be upset if they went without her, so they had to wait for her to get back. They were sitting in Martha’s living room when she arrived, Martha right behind her, lugging a decent sized suitcase behind her. They had been at Henry’s for most of the day, but he’d had an important conference call with one of his clients, and they had gone back to Martha’s to wait for her to return from the airport. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh good, you are here boys,” Martha said when she spotted them. “Someone be a dear and take this to my room for me please.” Neil wasn’t close enough to pinch Andrew so Aaron did it for him. He scowled but didn’t flinch at all that time, and he didn’t punch Aaron, like he’d done the first time, so Neil thought that whatever they were doing was working.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew stood up and took the bag without a word. Neil knew it was because deep down, Andrew was a snoop, and they didn’t have many opportunities to go into Martha’s room, and unlike Aaron and Neil, Andrew refused to do so without permission. Andrew had ignored Neil for a full hour the last time he had suggested they look around while Martha was gone.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That was Andrew that just left, this is Aaron and Neil. Boys, this is Caroline. My lovely partner.” Aaron tilted his head. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Why do you say partner? Are you not married?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Excellent question Aaron!” Carrie grinned at him. “The answer is because it is currently illegal!” Neil thought about that for a minute but couldn’t for the life of him figure out why it would be illegal.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Why?” he finally asked. Andrew wandered back into the room and sat on the arm of Neil’s chair, putting his feet in Neil’s lap. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“”Because, my dear Neil,” Martha answered him this time. “The government is currently comprised of racist and homophobic shitheads.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Martha!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What! They deserve to know the truth!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“They are children, you can’t just swear like that!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Like fuck I can’t.” Carrie rolled her eyes fondly and Martha clapped her hands again, slipping into business mode. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Right. So. Dinner. I’m thinking tacos. What do you boys think?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m thinking we still haven’t gone sledding,” said Aaron, only a little petulantly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s too cold to go tonight, and it’s supposed to start snowing in an hour. If we wait until tomorrow, we’ll have fresh snow to sled on, which is better anyway,” Carrie informed them seriously. The boys shared a long look before eventually agreeing to wait until the next day. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Great, now that that is settled, go wash your hands. Neil, we’re teaching you to cook the meat tonight, and since I know you already know how to cut vegetables, we’ll be doing that too,” Neil thought back to the day before when they had made stir fry, and he’d been in charge of cutting the peppers. They’d been far easier to cut than half the stuff his father had had him cutting. He thought he might actually like cooking, it was nice to know that some of the horrible stuff he was taught could be used for other things. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> She continued, “Aaron, you’re in charge of calling Henry and helping him make tortillas when he gets here. Andrew, you’re with Carrie, you’re making the rice and beans. Everyone got it?” They all nodded, and Andrew gave his little salute again. They’d divvied up the cooking every day so far and Neil thought it was way more fun to make the food than even getting pizza the first night had been. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It was over dinner that Henry brought up the subject of Christmas. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So how are we splitting Christmas shopping duty this year?” he asked as he shoveled rice onto his tortilla. Aaron perked up at the question, but Neil and Andrew exchanged alarmed looks. Neil had never done anything for Christmas before, and apparently neither had Andrew. What did that mean? Every year his parents used to hold a fancy Christmas party, but he had never been invited and it had never really seemed all that interesting. Obviously if Andrew’s grandparents were bringing it up, it was a bigger deal than he had assumed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh yeah, we should pull out the Christmas decorations again, give the boys a real Christmas!” Caroline winked at Neil and Andrew, and Neil had a feeling she knew more about their anxiety than she was letting on. “We don’t usually bother with decorations or the tree anymore, since it’s just the three of us, but with you boys around to help us, I’m sure we can have this place decked out in no time!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We could have a shopping day, and each take a kid around town,” Martha suggested with a shrug. “I was also wanting to make some holiday cookies for the Davises across the street, so we should probably make something of a schedule if we’re going to do everything.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Neil’s head ping ponged between them, completely lost. What exactly did trees and shopping have to do with Christmas? Were they having a party like his parents had? He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of having a party with anyone else. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew uncapped a pen under the table. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll explain later, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he wrote on his palm without looking down once. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil caught his eye and sent him a thankful smile. When he tuned back into the conversation, Martha and Carrie were arguing about whether or not Christmas movies were a necessary Christmas activity. Neil thought the entire conversation was a little bit silly. Henry obviously thought so too because he gave the boys a dramatic eye roll when they weren’t looking. Aaron giggled, and even Andrew looked like he might be close to cracking a smile. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyway, back to what we were actually talking about, which was Christmas presents. I’m thinking we give each of you fifty dollars to use to pick out presents for each other, and we can exchange gifts on Christmas day at whichever house we set up the tree at. Sound good?” The women nodded, and Neil’s eyes shot between them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We have our own money!” he protested. Andrew nodded, obviously feeling the same. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh pish posh. Save your money kids, we all make a lot of money and have no one to spend it on. Let us have this.” Neil eyed them all carefully, but he didn’t think they were lying.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay.” Andrew kicked him under the table, but Neil ignored him in favor of piling more salsa on his taco. Andrew didn’t appreciate being ignored and kicked him again. Neil just kicked him back.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That does mean though, that you should make some Christmas lists for us, so we know what kinds of things you like,” Martha explained. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t like things,” Andrew said stubbornly. Aaron rolled his eyes at him, but he also looked like he had no idea what he wanted.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s a lie. He likes books. Especially fantasy and mystery,” Neil interjected. Andrew sent him a betrayed look, but didn’t actually contradict him. Neil tried to think of things that he might want. It had been a long time since he was allowed to ask for things. The biggest problem was that he didn’t really want physical things. He didn’t care about that. He cared about making sure that his new family was safe and happy. He cared about making sure he never had to leave Andrew again. He cared about learning to use the skills he had never wanted to make things instead of hurt people. He wanted to look in the mirror and to not see his father staring back at him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He wanted... he wanted to draw little bees all over his arms for Andrew and not be afraid that someone would see and hurt one of them. He wanted to wake up every morning the way he had for the last week, with his family right there, safe and happy and </span>
  <em>
    <span>home. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He wasn’t sure how long he would have with Martha and her family, but he knew it wouldn’t be forever. But one day, maybe, they would be able to have a home like this of their own. Maybe they would have a place that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>theirs</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew nudged him to get his attention. Apparently they had been talking while he was lost in his head.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Neil, who would you like to go shopping with?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Neil tilted his head, he got to choose? He kind of just assumed that he would be assigned an adult and that would be it. He thought about it, then looked at Andrew and raised his eyebrows. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Martha,” Andrew answered the silent question. Aaron just shrugged, but Neil knew that he would rather be with the person they already knew. Which left him with…</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Carrie,” he decided.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright. After dinner you boys will need to go right to bed, we’re going to have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. You boys are going to wear me out, sledding and shopping all in one day,” Martha complained. Carrie nudged her. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Liar, they’re keeping you young.” Neil grinned into his taco. Maybe this is what he and his family would look like when they were old. And wasn’t that a thought. Neil might actually be able to grow old. </span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Neil hadn’t really known what sledding was when they talked about it, but he hadn’t wanted to say anything. Martha already was questioning where he came from, he didn’t want her to dig too hard just because he didn’t know what normal things were. It was not what he was expecting. It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>so much better.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He let out a shout as they shot down the hill, Andrew didn’t scream behind him, but he was wrapped around Neil like an octopus and Neil knew from watching him go down with Aaron that if he looked behind him, Andrew’s face would be buried in his back, eyes squeezed tightly shut.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil laughed as they skidded into a snowbank and Andrew let out an alarmed screech. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m going down with Carrie next!” Aaron called from the top of the hill. Neil shot him a thumbs up and pulled Andrew out of the snowbank. He was honestly really proud of the progress Andrew had made in the last month alone. He still didn’t like any of the adults touching him, but Aaron and Neil could both hold his hand without him freaking out, and sometimes, as long as Neil warned him, he could give him a hug. Neil had missed hugs, and it felt like Andrew gave him better hugs than his mother ever had. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil raced Andrew back up the hill. Andrew lost because he was slow, but he claimed it was because he was the one with the sled. Being cheerleaders for the people who were actually sledding was not as fun as actually sledding was, but since Martha had banned more than one sled on the hill at a time, they made games out of waiting. Neil pulled out his best Exy commentator voice and narrated their trips down the hill, rating every spin as if it were a fancy move. He tried getting the others to join in, but Andrew just stared at him silently when he put out his invisible microphone, and Martha and Henry didn’t really get it. They tried though, and Neil appreciated their enthusiasm. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Aaron joined in the commentary when he got back and they narrated the trip Carrie dragged a very flustered Martha down, including a very theatrical replay of the crash into the snowbank at the bottom that Martha and Carrie were happy enough to do a dramatic reenactment of. Andrew rolled his eyes, but he went down the hill in the front when Henry asked him. Neil and Aaron spent that trip commenting on every time Andrew actually opened his eyes. It deserved a standing ovation when both of them screamed going over the ramp Neil and Aaron had built in the middle of the hill, and subsequently managed to miss every time. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It was almost 2 p.m. by the time they had finally gotten bored and cold, and finally decided to venture back into town. The boys were expecting to immediately split into their pairs for shopping, so they were surprised when Carrie led them all into a small cafe instead.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“This is my favorite part of sledding,” she whispered to the boys like it was a secret, but Neil knew Martha had heard anyway because she had a smile on her face and gave them a small, amused shake of her head. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Six hot chocolates please!” she told the woman at the counter. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I get extra whipped cream?” Andrew asked. Neil took his hand again. Andrew hated asking for things.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course!” Carrie passed on the message to the barista, and it was Henry, Andrew and Aaron who lost rock paper scissors and got nominated to get the hot chocolates when they were done. It was obvious which one was Andrew’s because his whipped cream was so tall it was starting to fall off. Carrie took a picture of the twins with their hot chocolates from across the table. Neil was sure that they were probably both glaring at her in the picture, but since they were both still a bit wet from sledding, Neil thought that they looked more like disgruntled cats than anything else, and therefore hilarious. He laughed at them. Andrew retaliated by throwing some of his whipped cream at him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Food is for eating, not playing with Andrew,” Martha reminded him, but she was trying to hide a smile so Neil thought that she probably wasn’t mad. Neil stuck his tongue out at Andrew when she wasn’t looking. It didn’t take very long at all for them to finish their hot chocolate and split into their teams. Neil could tell that Andrew and Aaron were both a little bit hesitant about splitting up, now that it was time to actually do so, but Neil gave them a reassuring smile. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you know what you want to get the twins yet?” Carrie asked as soon as the others were out of earshot. Neil did not know what he wanted to get his best friends. They had all thrown together some lists, but Neil knew that none of the lists had really said what they wanted on them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” he answered her finally.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, how about we go wander around and see if anything stands out to us?” she suggested. “Do you want to get something for Martha and Henry too?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Neil looked up at her.“We can do that?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Sure we can. Come on. Let’s find our family some awesome Christmas presents, yeah?” Neil followed along behind her. Carrie was funny. Neil never expected adults to be funny.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s it. That’s what I want to get them.” Neil stared at the portable cd player in the window. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you sure Neil? You’d only be able to get one, and you wouldn’t be able to get them any CD’s to go with it,” Carrie warned him. Neil nodded. Andrew would like it because it would give him a nonverbal way of saying that he didn’t want to talk. Aaron would like it because it would give him a chance to be alone for a while. Neil knew that he was having a hard time being around him and Andrew 24/7. He may have grown up knowing more people than Neil had, but Neil had always had Andrew right there. Aaron hadn’t.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sure. I want to get them CD’s for it too. Don’t worry. I can pay for those.” Carrie looked dubious, but she held the door open for him and they wandered into the store. Neil wandered up and down the rows, looking at all the different cd’s. It was a bit overwhelming. Were there really this many different types of music?</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are you looking for there little dude?” Neil jumped at the voice behind him. He looked up to see a guy, probably in his late teens or early twenties. He had his ears pierced and Neil wasn’t sure if he thought that was weird or cool. Andrew would think it was cool. Aaron would say it was weird. Neil thought he was probably somewhere in the middle. Neil shrugged helplessly. He knew Andrew had told him what he liked to listen to, and he was pretty sure he could figure out something, but he had no idea what Aaron would like.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The guy didn’t seem fazed. “Well, are you looking for something for you, or for someone else?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“My best friends.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, what kind of music do they like?” He prodded gently.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Um. Andrew likes uhh Nirvana? And I don’t know what Aaron likes.” The guy grinned. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your friend has good taste, little man. Alright so there’s obviously Greenday, and the Ramones. If you’re looking for something a bit newer, I would recommend Pearl Jam or Radiohead. Sublime is good, they’re from California. They just broke up though.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, uh. All of those sound good? What were the last three?” Neil was overwhelmed with the sheer output of information.  Aaron would probably like at least one of them. Right? He panicked and threw a Britney Spears on the pile before he took it to the counter. At least he’d heard of her before. The guy unlocked the case to pull out the portable CD player. Neil carefully counted out the bills he would need. He had pulled them out of the bottom of his bag especially that morning and zipped the bills into the inside pocket of his borrowed coat.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Carrie grinned at him as he picked up his new presents.”Ready to go find some presents for the others?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil nodded and hugged the bag tighter. If this was how it felt to give people things, Neil would give his little family everything he had. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Seven</span>
</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t until they got home that Neil realized his next problem. He tapped Carrie on the shoulder, marvelling at the fact that she was nearly the same height as him, and only barely taller than both of the twins.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Carrie. How do I wrap these?” Neil asked when she turned. He wondered if he would be able to make them as pretty as all of the christmas displays in town had been. Carrie grinned at him and led him into the office she shared with Martha. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s a good thing that the others aren’t back yet, so we have room to spread out here.” She pulled some tubes of wrapping paper from the closet. Neil hadn’t known one person could have so many. She spread them across the floor in front of him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright. So in Martha’s family, they have always wrapped them all willy nilly, but in my family, every person gets their own wrapping paper, to make it easier to sort the presents when Christmas Day comes around. Since we’re the first ones done this year, we get to choose the wrapping paper for each person. Everyone else will have to follow our lead alright?” Neil nodded and stared at the different wrapping papers. He chose one with little presents on it for Aaron, because he thought he would like the duality of it.  Andrew got a paper that had some sledding penguins on it, because he pretended to hate sledding. He gave Martha the paper with the snowflakes, and Henry the paper that was covered in gold stars.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What about us?” Neil asked.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Whoever gets here next will choose ours for us. Now we should probably finish wrapping these before they get back. We don’t want them to see the presents before Christmas.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Why not?” Neil blurted out. He hadn’t meant to ask, but it had been killing him for weeks now, and Andrew and Aaron had both only shrugged when he asked them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well,” Carrie said slowly, as she showed him how to fold the paper over the CD’s he was putting in Andrew’s wrapping paper. “Mostly, it’s because it’s tradition. Years and years ago, someone decided that they would break up the long winter months with a festival. It was a much different event than it is now.Back then it was called Yule, and it was a time to connect with family and show them how much you appreciate them. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  
  <span>“Back when Yule was first celebrated, it was spread over a bunch of days, and celebrated at the winter equinox. But when the Christians adapted it into their mythos, they decided they would make it one day, so all of the festivals got moved onto one day.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“But that doesn’t explain why we have to wrap the presents so no one sees them before Christmas?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s because it’s more fun!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yep. When they moved everything to one day, obviously not everyone could go shopping on that day, it was supposed to be a holiday - no fold it the other way love - so they had to get creative. You didn’t want to give them your presents until everyone in the family was there to see it right? So people would start hiding the presents. But then if they got found, it would still ruin the surprise. So instead, they started wrapping the presents in newspapers and butcher paper, or sticking them in bags so no one could see, then they put them all in one place. That way, no one would try and open it on accident.” Neil put the last piece of tape on Aaron’s present and nodded in understanding.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So why the tree?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That came around in World War One sometime. I can’t remember. It’s fun though isn’t it?” Neil shrugged. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I dunno. I’ve never had one before.” Carrie stood up in a huff. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I knew it. When the other boys get back, we’re going to have to go pull the Christmas decorations out of the attic. You boys are going to have the best Christmas ever. I guarantee it!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Neil smiled at her. He thought she was being a bit dramatic considering that he had never celebrated Christmas before, so any Christmas that involved him not sitting in his room, listening to the disfigured sound of his parent’s party filter up from two floors below, was going to be amazing.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The others showed up just as Neil was stacking his wrapped presents in a neat little pile. Aaron was laughing at something Henry had said, and Neil could feel his heart swell at the sound. Aaron was by far the best adjusted of the three of them, but even he had a problem sometimes with knowing how to do things that other people found completely normal. Laughing was one of those things. Even Neil couldn’t ever remember a time when he found himself laughing, until they had started their little road trip.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil was so, so proud of his family. He thought that Andrew probably had a ways to go before he could laugh out loud. Showing any vulnerability at all was hard for him. But he would. Neil knew he would. He would one day be able to laugh and cry and yell and scream, and do everything else that they’d never had a chance to do as children. They both would. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t until two days later that they went to get the tree. This was primarily because Martha and Carrie had wanted Henry to be able to join them, and he’d had a meeting with a client the day after they went sledding. They had spent the day rotating between helping Carrie bring Christmas decorations down from the attic, and helping Martha make cookies and fruitcake instead.  Martha had banned Andrew from the kitchen after he tried stealing one too many of the cookies off the cooling rack. Neil liked the fruitcake best, though the other boys seemed to think it was gross. By the time they were done for the day, it looked like a Christmas store had exploded all over the house. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Normally we would do this sooner, so we have longer to appreciate it, but it’s alright, we’ll just leave everything up for a little longer to compensate hm?” Martha smiled at them and the boys all smiled in return. Even Andrew, though his smile was fleeting and Neil doubted she noticed it at all. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They wandered through the tree lot, and Andrew held court to assess every single tree the others pointed out. The grandparents were amused by this, but they played along anyway, defending their choices with zeal. Neil wasn’t sure that was really how courtrooms were supposed to be run, as Andrew was playing both Judge and jury, but they were having fun anyway. It was Aaron’s tree that eventually won. It was smaller than some of the other trees, only reaching the twin’s chins’, but as Aaron said, it was fluffy, smelled nice, and had a certain charm about it. Neil just thought they liked it because it was shorter than them.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You’ve got quite the courtroom presence. Have you ever considered becoming a lawyer?” Henry tried engaging Andrew in conversation, but after an afternoon of holding court, Andrew had slipped into a semi nonverbal state. He glanced at Neil for help, and he resigned himself to playing translator for the foreseeable future. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Andrew wants to be a social worker and help kids stuck in foster care.” Neil wasn’t sure how he knew that actually. It must have come up at some point though. There was no way he could have known that otherwise. “He just likes watching crime dramas.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, if you decide to pursue law school, let me know, you’re already better at it than a lot of my competitors.” Henry could tell that he wasn’t really in the mood to discuss it further just then, so he jogged up to talk to Aaron, who was pulling the sled with the tree, instead. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I never told you that,” Andrew said.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh?” Neil turned to look at him, and was a bit caught off guard by the intense look on Andrew’s face. “What?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I never told you I want to be a social worker.” Neil shrugged helplessly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you sure?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes. I’m sure.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Weird. Do you think it’s another side effect of the soulmate thing?” Andrew shrugged and looked forward again. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know.” Neil smiled knowingly. Andrew hated not knowing things. He was sure he knew that because he had known Andrew for so long, not because he just </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you mind?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do I mind what?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you mind me knowing things that you’ve never told me?” Andrew thought about it for a minute, then slowly shook his head.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Not if it’s you.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil grinned. “I love you too.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up idiot. Race you to the truck.” Andrew took off, and Neil scoffed at the thought that Andrew, who hadn’t run a day in his life, could possibly beat him in a race. He sprinted after him, laughing the whole way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The grandparents had… a lot of ornaments. And they could tell you stories about all of them. Apparently they followed the tradition started in Henry’s family, in which they gave Joseph a new ornament relating to his interests for the year, for every Christmas until he was eighteen. The dates were all written on both the box, and on the bottoms of all of the ornaments themselves. Neil thought it was a weird tradition, but then again, neither of his parents would have been able to say what his interests were at any point in his life.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Primarily because his list of interests always started with </span>
  <em>
    <span>Andrew</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>There was a part of him that desperately wanted this though. He wanted to get a new ornament that could prove that he’d existed for another year. He wanted to sit next to Andrew on the couch and pass him ornaments as he pulled them from their boxes, while Aaron placed them on the tree, under Andrew’s careful instruction. He wanted to keep playing mediator between the twins when Andrew gave Aaron an instruction that he didn’t agree with. He wanted to share a blanket with Aaron as Carrie told them yet another story about her large and crazy family and nearly dropped the ornament in her hand.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He wanted, he wanted, he wanted.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil didn’t need to want it though. He had it all right here. And sure, he may not have it in the future, but maybe he would have something better. A year ago, he had been sure he would never be able to meet Andrew in person either.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew pinched him, and Neil gave him a small smile in return. The reminder was unnecessary. For once in his life, Neil was present. He was </span>
  <em>
    <span>here. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The morning of Christmas Day didn’t bring any more fresh snow, but that was okay because the snow they did have was perfect for snowball fights, as the boys had discovered the day before. Andrew and Aaron had never had a white Christmas at all, so even the couple of inches they did have were a big deal. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Rise and shine boys! It’s Christmas!” Carrie sang from outside the room. She didn’t try to enter however, and Neil appreciated that she respected their privacy enough to grant them that. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Aren’t we supposed to be the ones excited about Christmas?” Aaron asked groggily. His hair was sticking up in every direction and Neil had to smother a laugh.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“I get the feeling she’s just sort of always like this,” Neil responded with a smile as he poked Andrew awake and skillfully dodged a flying fist.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Fair enough I guess. Come on Andrew, I think I smell french toast.” Neil really needed to learn how to make french toast if it was going to continue to be the most consistent way to get Andrew out of bed. He grinned as he noticed that Andrew’s bedhead mirrored Aaron’s.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“You know the rules, no presents until after breakfast!” Martha was admonishing Carrie in the kitchen when they wandered in. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Stockings don’t count as presents!” Carrie sang as she spun past each of the boys, dropping a stocking in each of their hands as she went. They were the same stockings that had been hung over the mantel in the living room since they had decorated, except now they were full of stuff. Neil sat down at the table next to Andrew and curiously dumped his stocking out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  
  <span>It was full of snacks. Snacks and socks. He grinned when he noticed the orange nestled among the chocolate. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Andrew. Trade?” He pointed at the small pile of chocolate he had split in half for this purpose. Andrew eyed the pile reproachfully, but pulled it across the table into his own anyway, before rolling the orange at Neil, who caught it easily.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Aaron?” He looked over to Aaron, who was sitting across from him, carefully arranging his chocolate into little towers. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“I want your pokemon cards,” Aaron responded without looking up from his stacks. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Neil hadn’t actually known what they were, so he handed them over easily. “Done.” He added the third orange to his pile. Andrew scowled at the small pile of chocolate still sitting in front of him until Neil relented and shoved the rest of his chocolate pile in Andrew’s direction. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil still thought it was weird that Carrie was the most excited about the presents, but her enthusiasm was a bit infectious and it wasn’t long before Neil was also eagerly watching the twins tear into their presents. Andrew stared at the CD’s in his lap, confused. Aaron gasped audibly when he opened the player. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It comes with headphones,” Neil supplied nervously, suddenly second guessing everything he had thought he had known about the twins.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew’s eyes shot up to stare at him.“Did you pick these?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Um. yes?” Andrew nodded once in what Neil assumed was approval, and went back to staring at the choices. He eventually gave one to Aaron to put into the player. Neil couldn’t see which one he gave him, but Aaron nodded his own approval, so Neil called it a win. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It hadn’t even occurred to him when he bought the presents that the others would also be buying him gifts. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What is- what?” he said, staring at the camera in his hands. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you like it? I noticed you always watch me take pictures, and thought you might like a camera of your own. This is the one I used to use, so it’s a little bit older, but it works just fine!” Neil continued to stare at it. He had never been given anything that had belonged to someone else before. Sure he shared clothes and stuff with Andrew and Aaron, but that was different. This was something bigger. This was something he had never had before. This was a family history. This was a legacy. This was an inheritance. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Neil had been given presents before, but none of them had ever meant as much as this. This had been used and loved by Carrie. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>This was </span>
  <em>
    <span>special. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew gave him a pack of film to go with it, and the first thing Neil did was take a picture of his unamused face. He was the only one who could see the barely there smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Aaron gave him a giant Algebra textbook, and Neil was delighted, to the alarm and disgust of everyone else. He wasn’t the only one who got a book either: Aaron received a book on the human body, and three others on medical law, which he immediately sat down and started reading, lost to the rest of the world. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil took a picture of him with his new camera.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Andrew waited until the grandparents had left the room to start tearing through his own stack of books like a madman, searching for the ones that looked the most interesting to read first. Neil recognized some of the titles as classics, things like Sherlock Holmes and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Journey to the Center of the Earth. He wondered if Andrew had already read any of them. He could remember everything he read, so Neil thought it might be boring for him to reread them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe not though, maybe Andrew liked the act of losing yourself in a book more than he liked the actual stories themselves. Maybe even he didn’t know. Maybe he had never tried to reread a book before. Neil could ask him, but he decided not to. He took another picture of him instead.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Later, Carrie would take a moment to show Neil a few of the settings on the camera, then direct him towards the manual so he could figure out how to work it himself. No matter how good he got at using it though those first couple of photos would always be his favorite. Those blurry and out of focus photos with the lense flare and the terrible lighting; where it was just him, and his family, and Christmas, and the sunshine streaming through the windows and reflecting off of the tinsel. They may not have been the best photos, but they were the first ones to capture the first time he had ever felt at home. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Eight</span>
</h2>
<p>
  <span>“Boys! Can you come in here for a moment?” It was Boxing day. Neil still couldn’t figure out why it was called Boxing day, but that didn’t bother him as much as it might have any other day. That could have just been because he had just spent the last two hours with the twins, trying to teach Andrew how to play Exy using snowballs. It was not going well, but snow Exy was still better than no Exy at all. Aaron and Neil both had racquets, but Andrew did not, so the three boys had to take turns using the two they had, and Neil had to play striker against Aaron since two backliners didn’t make for a very interesting scrimmage. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew had quickly found his home in the goal, where he could observe the entire ‘court’ and pelt them with snowballs when he got bored. Which he did easily.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil had never been happier.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s up?” he asked, running up to the back door to stand in front of Martha. The other boys followed at a far more languid pace. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We need to have a serious discussion for a minute. Don’t worry, none of you are in any trouble,” she added when she saw all of them freeze slightly. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s this about?” Andrew asked her cautiously as they shucked off their wet outer clothes. When they walked into the kitchen they found that Carrie and Henry were also there. A knot of dread filled his stomach, but he pushed it down. The grandparents were nice, they wouldn’t hurt them. They </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We need to talk about your future, boys,” Henry said. It was the most serious Neil had ever seen him outside of one of his meetings.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Our future?” Aaron asked, taking one of the leftover Christmas cookies from the center of the table as he sat down. Andrew warily followed his lead, taking a handful of the cookies as he sat as well. Neil sat, but he didn’t reach for a cookie.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“How would you boys feel about us adopting you?” Carrie asked with a smile.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The boys all exchanged shocked glances, Neil had kind of been expecting them to be calling them in to tell them that they had to leave. They all answered at once, “Yes.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Really? You would?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“All of us?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes. All of you!” Carrie laughed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“There are some kinks in our plan though,” Henry added.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Martha crossed her arms. “We have a bit of a dilemma here boys. See, we would love to adopt you all, but Neil here hasn’t even given us his last name, let alone any other personal information, and the two of </span>
  <em>
    <span>you,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> she gestured to Andrew and Aaron, who were now both covered in cookie crumbs, “ran away from home, which complicates things quite a bit, as technically, we should have called the police as soon as you arrived.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Frankly boys, we’re in a pickle,” Carrie chipped in cheerfully.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh,” Aaron said, gazing down at his hands. They were all silent for a moment. Neil wondered if it was all too good to be true. He’d finally found a place he liked living, and people he liked living with, and it was being taken from him too.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What if we leave?” Andrew spoke up. “You can file for custody or whatever, and we can go somewhere else. No one would even have to know that we were here.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And where exactly would you boys plan on going?” Martha looked dubious, but didn’t turn down Andrew’s idea flat out. Martha was cool like that.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Nicky’s.” Aaron was the one who answered. “We have a cousin, on our mom’s side. We’ll go visit him until you guys can adopt us. That would work right?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And if Nicky, or his parents, don’t feel like taking care of you boys?” Martha asked seriously. “Would you be alright with being sent back to your guardians, or put into foster care until we could get custody? Because the other alternative is that we call the police and report you boys being here, in which case you will almost certainly be sent back to your current guardians.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil watched Andrew closely. Aaron didn’t know what foster care was like, he would say or do anything that meant he got to stay with Andrew. Andrew, who knew exactly what sorts of monsters could lurk behind the closed doors and deceptively friendly faces. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>His face was impassive, but Neil could see the jerky shake of his hands as they clutched at his cookie. The crumbs were collecting into a pile on the table, but no one but Neil seemed to notice.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re not trying to discourage you boys, just prepare you for the realities of the situation. This could end up becoming a months or years long process, especially if either of your current guardians decide to fight us,” Henry chimed in kindly. “We just want you to know all of the information before you make a decision.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>All three boys were silent for a long minute. Neil waited patiently for Andrew to come to a decision. Aaron did the same, though Neil could tell that he was wanting to go on to South Carolina. He didn’t say anything however, simply waited for Andrew.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“We’ll go visit Nicky,” Andrew finally decided. Carrie smiled at them from across the table.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Alright then boys, we’d best get y’all ready for a road trip then, huh?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Andrew? Can I talk to you?” All three boys were laying on the bed reading their individual books. Neil had the graphing calculator Henry had dug up, and a pad of paper in front of him as he worked through the problems in his math book. Aaron had a law dictionary he was referencing as he read through his medical law book. Neil thought that the book looked incredibly dull, but he kept pointing things out to Andrew every so often, so he must have liked it anyway. Andrew had the cd player, so Neil nudged him with his foot in order to get his attention. Andrew looked up at Martha in the doorway. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He tilted his head in question. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re trying to gather all of the information we can on your case before you leave tomorrow, so we would like to ask you a few questions about why you ran away from home.” Andrew shot Neil a panicked look. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you want me to be there?” he asked quietly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re not going to make you tell us anything you don’t want to, Andrew, but the more information we have, the easier it will be for us to fight for you,” Martha explained sympathetically. Andrew thought for a moment, then nodded. He gave the CD player to Aaron, who watched him carefully but didn’t move, then clambered off the bed. He held out his hand for Neil, who followed without further prompting. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The boys followed Martha into the office she shared with Carrie, and sat down on the loveseat against the wall. Andrew threw his legs over Neil’s in a deceptively casual manner. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright Andrew, you can tell us in your own time,” Carrie prompted gently. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew opened and shut his mouth a few times before he turned to look helplessly at Neil.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Would it be easier to write it?” Neil asked. He still didn’t understand why Andrew had so much trouble saying things out loud sometimes, but he was more than willing to help him anyway.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> Andrew pulled his pen from his pocket and wrote </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes </span>
  </em>
  <span>in his familiar spidery handwriting. Neil had almost missed the buzzing sensation that always came when Andrew wrote to him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you sure-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>They already know.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay. Do you want to be here for this? Or do you want to go in the other room?” Neil wasn’t sure if Andrew would be more comfortable talking about it if he was with Neil, or if he were somewhere else, where he didn’t feel like he was being stared at. Andrew stared at him for a long moment, and Neil knew anyone else would have found it unnerving, but he knew Andrew, and he knew Andrew was just trying to come to a decision.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Other room. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Is- is that okay? Does that work?” Neil looked up at Martha and Carrie.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course honey, you do whatever you need to do to feel comfortable,” Carrie assured him with a smile. Andrew nodded and clambered off of Neil, shutting the office door behind him. Neil hoped he was going to go sit with Aaron, but knew he was probably holing himself up in the coat closet or something instead. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil looked down at his arm again and waited for Andrew to get settled. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>They can ask Higgins for details. It’s the same old story. Tell them to ask him about Stephen Smalls. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil passed on the message and Carrie wrote both names down.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Can you ask him if there was anything specific that was different between this home and the home with Stephen Smalls?” Martha asked in a soft voice. Neil would be mad at her for trying to handle him with kid gloves, if he didn’t already start to feel the nausea and distress rolling off of his bond with Andrew.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>He took a shuddery breath and pulled his orange marker from his pocket so he could pass on the question. He and Andrew had gotten far better at not using up all of the space on their arms in the time since they had first begun writing to one another.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>Andrew’s handwriting was the shakiest he had seen it since Thanksgiving. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t even try to say please with Drake. I didn’t say please, or no, or stop. I didn’t say anything.  </span>
  </em>
  <span>Neil was crying now, but he couldn’t tell if his tears were his or Andrew’s. Maybe they were both. He was sobbing too hard to even pass on the message to Martha and Carrie.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Neil, honey. Can I touch you?” Carrie asked carefully. Neil tried to think though his sobs and the nausea rolling in his gut. Would he have Andrew’s touch aversion when he was like this? He didn’t know. He just- didn’t know. He shakily nodded his consent and breathed a small sigh of relief when he felt himself relax into Carrie’s hug, instead of stiffening as Andrew would have done. Carrie started carding her fingers through his hair while Martha knelt in front of him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Can I read what he wrote, Neil? You don’t have to say anything, I know it’s hard.” Neil nodded and tried to will his sobs into submission. All he wanted was to go find Andrew. Andrew was the one who needed comfort just then, not him. Andrew needed him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Oh honey.” Martha sighed sadly. “I was afraid of this, but I’d hoped - never mind that. You go find him. He’s going to need you right now.” Neil nodded again and pulled himself out of Carrie’s arms and into the hallway. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>Andrew was in the coat closet. Neil let himself in and shut the door behind him. The sliver of light from the doorway wasn’t bright enough to illuminate Andrew’s face, but he moved over so Neil could sit beside him on the floor. Neil did so, careful not to touch Andrew.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>To his surprise, Andrew reached out and twisted his fingers into Neil’s hair, pulling him forward until their foreheads touched. Neil let out a breath, but didn’t break the silence. Andrew didn’t say anything for a long while. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Do you think it’s my fault? For not saying-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“No.” Neil jerked back so he could see Andrew’s face. Andrew’s fingers caught in his curls, but he ignored his discomfort.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>Andrew’s fingers twitched, but remained hovering by his face. “But-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“NO. No. You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Abram-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No Andrew! It’s not your fault! None of it is your fault! Is it Aaron’s fault that his mom hit him?” Neil could barely make out Andrew’s scowl at the reminder, but he knew it was there all the same. Maybe it was the same way he knew that Andrew wanted to be a social worker, maybe it wasn’t. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“That’s differen-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“NO. It’s not different! I didn’t tell my dad to stop. I didn’t say no either. I still don’t know what exactly happened to you Andrew, but NONE of us deserved to be hurt.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“How do you know?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
  <span>“Because I know </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> dummy.” Neil rested his forehead back against Andrew’s and smiled when Andrew’s fingers found his curls again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  
  <span>“You boys have everything? Food, money, Exy sticks?” Andrew scoffed at Carrie’s questions. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“As if Neil would forget his Exy stick.” Carrie grinned and ruffled Neil’s hair again. Neil just grinned up at her, ignoring Andrew’s obvious attempts at drawing him into a dumb argument. Aaron wandered into the kitchen with Henry. They were talking about his medical books or something else super boring like that. He seemed no worse for wear, even though Aaron had also been given the option of talking to the grandparents about the abuse he suffered at his mom’s house. Unlike Andrew, he’d been able to actually tell the grandparents what happened to him, with only minimal badgering from Andrew and Neil.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve got everything,” Neil assured Carrie as Martha appeared from the direction of the bedrooms, looking the most frazzled he had ever seen her. She was clutching her car keys in her hand. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you ready to go boys? Your bus leaves at 11:30, so we should probably leave now. Where is my wallet? Carrie-” Carrie held out the wallet and a thermos of what Neil assumed was coffee. “Oh bless you. This is why I keep you around.” She turned back around to look at the boys. “Alright boys, Let’s rock and roll out.” Henry rolled his eyes from behind her, but smiled anyway.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You boys have a safe trip alright?” He ruffled Aaron and Neil’s hair, and gave Andrew a small wave. Carrie also waved at them and Martha ushered them out the door and into her little car. After some squabbling, Neil managed to claim dibs on the front seat. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Both the twins gave him identical looks of disgust from the back seat.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil was glad it was Martha driving them, as she didn’t feel the need to fill the car with mindless chatter. He wasn’t sure if he could handle someone pretending they were just on their way to the store right now. Martha pulled to a stop in front of the bus station, and Neil wondered how the hour long drive had gone so fast, when it had seemed to drag on forever when they went the other direction.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Martha got out to help them pull the bags out of the trunk, and stood there watching them for a minute.“You boys stay out of trouble, you hear?” Neil nodded and he thought he saw Andrew and Aaron doing the same. Martha seemed to break then. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, get over here and give your grandma a hug.” She opened her arms, and Aaron didn’t hesitate to do as he was told. To Neil’s great surprise however, Andrew wasn’t far behind him. She looked up at Neil and smiled at him over the twins’ heads. “You too Neil. Don’t think you can get away without a proper goodbye.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil wondered if she knew how much just being included meant to him. When they parted, Martha wiped away some stray tears and shooed them away.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Go on then boys, you’ll be late for your bus. Andrew, you know my number. Call me at least once a month, and if you ever need anything. Stay safe boys.” They all nodded, and Aaron sniffled a little bit, but they waved as she pulled away.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The trip to South Carolina wasn’t dissimilar to their trip to Nebraska. There really wasn’t much to see for most of the trip, but the boys kept themselves entertained by playing a series of travel games, some that they could remember reading or hearing about, but most made up, with rules that could change at a moment’s notice. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When they eventually grew tired of that, they spent a few hours talking about everything and nothing. Letting comfortable silence fill the air when there was nothing more to say. No matter what they were doing however, every cow, horse and sheep was pointed out to the others in glee. Neil had never considered that travel could be anything like this when he had started his journey months before. It was open, and fun, with nothing to run from and everything to run to. Neil was almost sad when they finally got off the bus in Columbia.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay. Lead the way Aaron.” Neil and Andrew waited as Aaron looked around them and gave a nervous shudder. Thunder rolled ominously in the distance.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Right. This way.” Neil idly wondered if he should maybe invest in a map of some sort.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oh did I say this was fluff? Guess what. </p>
<p>(I'm joking, it goes back to the fluff in the next chapter)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>One chapter left! I'm very bad at responding to comments, but thank you to everyone who has commented thus far, I appreciate every single one of them.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Nine</span>
</h2><p>
  <span>“Are you sure we’re even in the right neighborhood?” Andrew hissed at Aaron. Neil took his hand. Andrew didn’t like the cold very much, and it was making him more obnoxious than usual. Neil was only a bit more used to it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes I’m sure this is the right neighborhood! Nicky and I went to the Sonic over there once. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You </span>
  </em>
  <span>try finding someplace you’ve only been like twice, when it’s raining and all the houses look the same!” Aaron snapped back, shoving his wet hair out of his eyes as he squinted through the dim light. Andrew was about to respond, but Neil squeezed his hand in warning. Sometimes he thought he was the only reasonable one in their little family. He sighed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are there any things that Andrew and I can keep an eye out for that can help?” he asked Aaron as calmly as possible. He was also cold and would have liked to get out of the rain.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t- I-” Aaron was distracted looking down the street. Neil turned to see that one of the porch lights was on. Aaron grinned. “Found it.” He grabbed Andrew’s other hand - after a quick glance at his face to make sure he was okay with it  - and dragged them both towards the porch light.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As they got closer, Neil could see the figure sitting on the steps. He stopped a few feet away. The personwas crying. Neil didn’t know what to do with crying people. Obviously Andrew didn’t either, because he stopped as well. Aaron rolled his eyes at their panicked faces and continued pulling Andrew forward. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong Nicky?” he asked. Nicky jolted and looked up at them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What - Aaron? What are you - Who is - I’m so confused.” He was no longer crying though, so Neil creeped forward again and retook Andrew’s hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh. This is Andrew - we’re twins - and that’s Neil. Wanna go to McDonalds? It’s really cold out here.” Nicky let out a helpless laugh.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“McDonalds sounds great.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On the way to Mcdonalds, Aaron explained what they were doing in South Carolina and how they had gotten there. He gave a far shorter explanation than he’d given to Martha, which Neil was grateful for. He still didn’t know anything about Nicky, and therefore did not trust him. Aaron said he was an 8 on the niceness scale, but he’d also said that the last time he’d seen Nicky was when he was eight, so Neil wasn’t sure how much he trusted Aaron’s memory. Nicky certainly </span>
  <em>
    <span>seemed </span>
  </em>
  <span>nice, but you could never be too sure, and Neil couldn’t afford for them to make mistakes</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neil paid for everyone to get food from McDonalds, resolutely ignoring the stares they were getting from being three homeless looking boys with exy racquets and a teen in a hoodie and pajama pants. They sat at one of the booths and Andrew watched in silence as Nicky explained to Neil and Aaron that he’d been sitting on the front porch because he’d just found out that his parents were going to send him to a conversion camp because he was gay. Neil wasn’t sure what a conversion camp was, but judging from the way Andrew’s face darkened, he assumed it was a bad thing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So why did you tell them you were gay if you knew they were homophobic?” Aaron asked, confused.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Because of my soulmate. They found out I have one, and wanted to know ‘all about her’. I thought, well it’s my soulmate. God probably doesn’t give you soulmates unless he thinks you should be together right? So I told them. They banned me from talking to him again, and signed me up for conversion therapy.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who’s your soulmate?” Neil didn’t know how, but now that Nicky said that he had a soulmate, he hadn’t been surprised. He wondered if Andrew felt it too. He wondered if he could tell if anyone else had a soulmate. It was kind of fascinating.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nicky’s face lit up. “His name is Erik. He lives in Germany, so I started taking German in school because we couldn’t really talk at first. We used to draw pictures instead. It was fun. He’s a year older than me and he’s amazing!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neil wondered if he talked about Andrew like that. He risked a glance at Andrew next to him, only to find that Andrew was already staring at him with a pensive look on his face. Aaron wrinkled his nose at Nicky’s gushing but didn’t comment. Andrew’s gaze slid over to stare at Nicky again instead. Aaron and Neil both watched him, waiting for the verdict. He was the leader, they would follow his lead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re going on an adventure. You can join us if you want,” he finally decreed with a shrug. Neil wasn’t surprised. Andrew was good at making decisions far more dramatic than were necessarily warranted. Nicky stared at him in confusion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What kind of adventure?” Andrew and Aaron shrugged in unison, but it was Aaron that answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re kind of making it up as we go.” Nicky bit his lip.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can we go to Germany?” The boys turned and looked at Neil, who stopped moving, with a fry halfway to his mouth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why are you looking at me?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you have a story that can get us through airport security?” Aaron asked, looking more curious than anything else. Neil thought about it for a minute. What had he done last time he went to visit Stuart? He remembered his mother handing the attendant a little book. A passport. Crap. He ate his french fry in contemplation, assessing their options. He finally looked up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not without help.” Nicky looked put out, but Andrew raised an eyebrow. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you have help in mind?” Neil nodded, still thinking. They would also need an adult to go with them. He might have been able to bypass unaccompanied minor status within the country, but they would definitely be caught if they tried it outside of the country.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to have to call my Uncle Stuart.”</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Neil had known Stuart’s number by heart since he was six years old, long before he had ever actually met the man. He was slow as he typed the number in now though. What if Stuart didn’t answer? What if he had changed his number? What if he didn’t want to help? What if he didn’t care?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello?” Stuart’s deep british accent sent a sigh of relief through Neil’s body. He found himself slipping into an accent of his own.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uncle Stuart?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nathaniel? Is that you?” Neil winced at his old name. It was weird after not hearing it for so long. He didn’t want it anymore. He didn’t want any more ties to his father.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. It’s me.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where have you been? You went missing in November!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I- uh. I went on a road trip? With some friends?” he glanced at Andrew helplessly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You went- alright.” Stuart sighed. “Are you safe right now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. I just- we don’t know what to do now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who is we?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My friends and I.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nathaniel, I am more than happy to help you get away from your parents, but I don’t know about-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No. They come with me,” Neil interrupted him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t just take on your friends because you like them Nathaniel.” Neil looked up at Andrew again. He would have to tell their secret. It was the biggest secret he had. They hadn’t even told Aaron. Andrew nodded, giving him permission.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They - they’re not just my friends Uncle Stuart, they’re my</span>
  <em>
    <span> family.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Andrew is my soulmate,” he blurted into the phone. Stuart was silent for a moment, then he sighed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright. That explains some things. Did you tell anyone else about you boys? And who are the others?” Neil wasn’t sure what Stuart meant by ‘telling anyone else about them’ but assumed he was referring to the soulmate thing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No. No one. You’re the first person I've told. Not even Aaron and Nicky knew. They’re Andrew’s brother and cousin.” He wondered if he should mention that Andrew had at some point told the grandparents, but decided it probably wasn’t relevant. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright. Thank God your own parents have written you off for dead-” Neil suppressed a small gasp at the new information. What was worse than knowing that his parents hadn’t even looked for him, was knowing that them not looking was the better alternative. He forced his attention back to Stuart. “-so four of you then? What are their full names? Do any of them have families that will be looking for them? Do not lie to me Nathaniel.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Andrew Doe, Aaron Minyard, and-” Neil sent a questioning look at Nicky. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nicholas Hemmick.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nicholas Hemmick,” he repeated into the phone. “Andrew’s foster parents might look for him, but he’s been missing for two months too. Aaron has a mom, but I don’t know if she even noticed Aaron is gone. Nicky has parents, but they wanted to send him to a conversion camp anyway. The twins have some grandparents, but we like them. They’re lawyers and trying to get custody of Andrew and Aaron. They wouldn’t tell anyone where we are as long as they know we’re safe,” Neil answered succinctly, habit kicking in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What did you mean when you said Aaron’s mom may not have noticed?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She was a drug addict.” Stuart gave another exhausted sigh. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The things I do for you kid.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’ll pay you back for the trouble. We can work, or-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No Nathaniel. I’m not going to ask you to do that. You are all children, and your mother may not have cared about the family, but I do. Family takes care of its own, and if Andrew is your soulmate, that makes his family our family.” Neil sighed in relief - he hadn’t been sure what his uncle would even ask of them in return, he’d just hoped it was something better than what his father wanted from him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay. Thank you.” Neil inserted more quarters when the payphone beeped at him. Stuart asked him more logistical questions, and Neil answered as best he could. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you have somewhere to stay for a few days while I get this sorted?” Neil thought about the hotel they had passed as they had been walking to Nicky’s house, and how much money he had left, hidden in the bottom of his bag. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright. Call me back in three days, and I’ll give you instructions.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nathaniel. You’ll be okay.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I- I go by Neil now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay. Call me in three days.” The line went dead. Neil stared at it for a moment, hardly able to believe that he’d done it. That Stuart was going to help him. The silence was broken by Aaron. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You two are </span>
  <em>
    <span>soulmates?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Neil nodded numbly, he didn’t even have to look at Aaron to know he had a dumbfounded expression on his face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yup,” Andrew answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How did- is that how you met?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yup.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do I have a soulmate?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know? Do you?” Andrew mocked him. Neil felt like he could move again and looked up just in time to see Nicky hand Aaron a marker.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re twins! If you have one, I have to have one too,” he told Andrew matter of factly, as he wrote on his arm. Neil leaned over to see what he was writing. Aaron glared at him, but didn’t try to hide his arm.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hi. I’m Aaron. I just found out my twin has a soulmate, so I want to know mine.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Neil thought those were bold words from someone who had no idea if he actually had a soulmate or not.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hi! I’m Katelyn! </span>
  </em>
  <span>The response came a few minutes later. Andrew looked unhappy about the development, but Neil elbowed him and he kept silent. Nicky eventually had to go back to his house, but he left them in a far more jovial mood than they had found him in, so Neil thought that they had probably done something right.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neil called Stuart back three days later as promised.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright. I talked to Andrew and Aaron’s grandparents, and they’re willing to work with me on this one.” Neil wondered if he would ever get to learn how Stuart was able to just </span>
  <em>
    <span>get </span>
  </em>
  <span>people’s phone numbers and addresses. It seemed like a handy skill to have. “I was able to get you and the twins some fake passports, which you will be picking up in New York in two days. My men should be there tomorrow. You’ll be flying out of JFK in New York in three days. Tell your friend Nicky to make sure he gives all of the things he needs to you. We’ll be collecting him tomorrow night, and all four of you will be driving straight to New York from there. Are you sure about this Nathaniel? After we do this, none of you will ever be able to return to your previous lives.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure. </span>
  <em>
    <span>We’re </span>
  </em>
  <span>sure.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I hope you’re right. My men should be meeting with you in the morning.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you. Are you sure we don’t have to pay-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I told you not to worry about that. Family. Get it through your head. Besides, Mr. Hemmick’s parents have provided the money for this little expedition of yours.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll see you in a few days. Stay out of trouble Nathaniel.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s Neil now remember. And I will.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll get it one of these days.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> Neil smiled.“See you later Uncle Stuart.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good luck kid.” Neil hung up the payphone and immediately turned to grin at Andrew. They were finally going to be free! They could go where they wanted, do what they wanted, and Neil might even be able to go to the amusement park finally. Andrew gave him one of his small, barely-there smiles in return, and Neil suddenly felt like he could take on the world.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aaron was still talking about Katelyn to Nicky when they got back inside, the same way he’d been for the past three days.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She likes science too! I told her about my human body book, and she thought it sounded awesome and is going to get it from the library. She says she’s going to be a doctor when she grows up too. She’s suuuper smart!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Andrew scowled at Aaron again, but hadn’t told him to shut up about her since Neil had reminded him that he and Andrew were together, </span>
  <em>
    <span>but remember how hard it was when we were apart? Let him talk about her if he wants. It’s not like he’s hurting anyone. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neil was wary when he heard the knock on the hotel door the next morning, even though he knew that it was probably just Stuart’s employee. Did Stuart call them employees? Probably not actually. There was a man standing at the door when Neil opened it. He was tall, with short curly hair that was pinned back from his face with a few bobby pins. He had a kind face, but Neil was still a bit wary, until he spoke.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey kids. I’m Dave. I work for your uncle. You must be Nathaniel, or Neil was it? Your Uncle mentioned that you changed your name. You have your Uncle Stuart’s face you know. Or your mother’s I suppose. That makes you two Andrew and Aaron, yes?” The twins nodded. Neil was a little overwhelmed by the man’s cheery attitude, and the fact that he said Neil looked like his mom. No one ever said Neil looked like his mom. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right, so here’s the deal. I’m going to be meeting with the Hemmicks later today. You three-” he pointed his finger at each of them individually- “are in charge of making sure that Nicholas is out of the house for the day, as it will be easier to get all of the paperwork finished up if he’s not around. This evening, we’ll go pick him up from his house and get on the road! Do we already have his bag?” Neil pointed to the neat stack of duffle bags and backpacks that sat in the corner of the room. The Exy sticks were stacked on top of it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right. Why don’t we get all that into the car, and you can check out of the hotel. Actually, I don’t even know how you checked into the hotel, so maybe I should do that? How </span>
  <em>
    <span>did </span>
  </em>
  <span>you manage to check into the hotel?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My mother was parking the car and asked me to pay and get the keys,” Neil told him in a flat voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dave looked at him, impressed. “And how did you make the reservation?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I called. Andrew has a pretty convincing adult voice when he tries.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right, well, either way, we should get the bags to the car, and I’ll drop off your key for you. Don’t be alarmed by my partner, his face is just like that.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neil exchanged a look with Andrew before they all wandered over to pick up their things. Dave lead them to the car and unlocked the trunk. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead and throw everything in the boot.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In the what?” Aaron laughed, and even Andrew cracked a small smile. Not that Dave would recognize it as a smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ha ha, very funny boys. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Americans,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>he muttered. A giant man climbed out of the car behind Dave, and Neil couldn't help but stare. He kind of looked like the G.I. Joe his mother had gotten him for Christmas when he was eight. He had the same, weirdly defined muscles, and the same close-cropped dark hair. The only difference was that this man didn’t have the cool scar running down the side of his face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Boys, this is Simon. He’s going to be the one doing the actual extraction.” Neil could understand why. The man looked like he could carry all three of them at once and still have room to carry Nicky too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Simon grunted in greeting and continued scowling. Neil didn’t feel any real malice from him though, in fact he sort of reminded him of Andrew. Aaron apparently thought the same thing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey Andrew, he has your face,” he whispered to his brother.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You </span>
  </em>
  <span>have my face.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You mean </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>have </span>
  <em>
    <span>my </span>
  </em>
  <span>face.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nuh uh, I’m older.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Since when?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Since birth, duh.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You don’t know that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do too.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do not.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do too.” Neil let out a long suffering sigh. Things had been so peaceful for a minute there. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As amusing as this is, we need to be going if we want to make our meeting. You boys stay out of trouble, and meet us here at 7pm. Where is Nicky by the way?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s always late, so he’ll be here in about ten minutes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, if you’re sure. 7 p.m. boys!” They drove off, leaving the boys standing in the middle of the hotel parking lot. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right. What do we want to do today?” Neil asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“So how are you getting Nicky out anyway?” Aaron asked, leaning up to rest his arms across the back of the passenger seat. Andrew was leaning against the window, pretending he wasn’t paying attention to everything that was going on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was actually super easy. Here. Stuart emailed them this flier a few days ago and all it took was a British accent answering all of their questions before they agreed to send Nicky to our ‘exclusive Christian boarding school, in the heart of rural England.’” Neil looked at the flier Dave had handed Aaron from over his shoulder. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He blinked. It had been a while, but he’d recognize the mansion anywhere. “Isn’t that Stuart’s house?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. The school name is one of his shell companies too. Can you believe they didn’t even bat an eye at signing a check to Hatford Enterprises instead of Hatford Academy for Troubled Boys? I will never cease to be amazed at the willingness of people to just sign their lives away on a whim. Here’s the kicker though, they didn’t even read the paperwork. I had a whole speech ready to explain away why we could possibly need them to give us temporary guardianship, and they didn’t even read the paperwork. It makes me real glad that we’re getting your friend out of there anyway. If that’s how they treat legal documents regarding his life. Jesus.” Neil was still reading the pamphlet over Aaron’s shoulder. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ ‘We strive to change a rebellious and out of control boy into a God-honoring and parent-honoring young man; to be an honest, hard-working asset to the community in which he will live, with God's help.’ What even is this?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Would you believe it? That entire mission statement was pulled directly from a boarding school here in the States.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And people actually send their kids to these places? What the heck.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“People are dumb, kids. Ah here they come now.” Nicky looked like he was having to physically fight a smile as he pretended to try and pull his arm out of Simon’s grip. Neil rolled his eyes. Nicky really was not a good actor. Simon shoved him into the car next to Aaron, and they moved over to let him in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Simon climbed into the passenger seat, and they pulled away from the curb and onto the next leg of their journey.</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>fun fact, there are actual companies that exist to kidnap kids on behalf of the parents. It's wild and about as unethical as you can get</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So this is the last actual chapter of this fic, the only thing left is the bonus chapter! Thank you all for coming on this journey with me! I had a lot of fun writing these boys, and who knows, maybe I'll get around to actually writing a sequel at some point.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Chapter Ten</span>
</h2>
<p>
  <span>They only made it as far as Charlotte, North Carolina before they stopped and let Simon out.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh he’s not coming with us the entire way, he was only hired for the extraction bit,” Dave explained. Neil shrugged it off. It didn’t matter to him if Simon was with them, in fact, Simon leaving meant that Nicky could move to the front seat, which meant Neil could finally move around again. Aaron had the CD player - agreed upon via some convoluted game of rock paper scissors that Neil didn’t even want to begin trying to understand. Nicky fell asleep within a few minutes of claiming the front seat, and hadn’t woken up in the hours since. Neil would have tried to sleep as well, it was the middle of the night after all, but he was antsy. It wasn’t until he saw the sign declaring Baltimore as being only 40 miles away that he understood. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Even so, Neil didn’t know why he was so affected. It wasn’t even like they would be stopping in Baltimore. They had already been told that their route would take them straight past it. But he was, and with every minute that passed, the more and more agitated he got- Until he felt like the bees he drew all over his arms for Andrew had sunk beneath his skin and just sat there, buzzing. He didn’t even realize he was shaking, or that Andrew was calling his name, until he felt the telltale brush of Andrew making swirling patterns across his arms. It wasn’t something he did often: Andrew had always been more careful about the drawings than Neil had, despite the fact that Neil was arguably more at risk. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>What’s wrong?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Was written among the patterns, the little triangles and spiraling vines wrapping around the little sun and moon shapes to form words. They were like another secret that was only for him and Andrew. A secret to replace the one he’d shared. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t know, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he responded with his trusty orange marker. He didn’t know. He didn’t know why he felt so sad. He didn’t know why he was so angry or scared. He was on his way to his Uncle’s house, where he would be </span>
  <em>
    <span>safe. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He had Andrew, and Aaron and Nicky, and if Stuart was to be believed, he would have Martha and Carrie and Henry too. So why did he feel like his brain was full of cotton and the walls of the car were pressing in on him?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t until the orange marker started to run in little rivulets down his arm that he noticed he was crying.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Neil.” Andrew looked panicked. He had his hands on either side of Neil’s face, but he didn’t touch. Andrew never touched without permission. Andrew would never hurt him. He would never yell at him, or drag him down the hallway by his hair, or laugh as the scent of burning flesh filled the air. Andrew was safe.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil could breathe again, and he heaved in great gasps of air as the world came crashing back down on him, and everything was thrown back into technicolor. Funny, he hadn’t even noticed that it had faded to grey. He was still crying, still hiccuping great heaving sobs that he couldn’t even begin to try and stop. His lungs inflated with air, and it burned its way into his lungs - it brought a good sort of ache with it though, the sort of ache you got after you beat your run time, or made a perfect assist on court. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Everything alright back there?” Dave asked. Neil ignored him in favor of keeping his eyes fixed on Andrew’s face and trying to breathe. As much as he liked Dave, Neil still didn’t want him to watch his mental breakdown. Luckily, even with all of the noise, Nicky was still sleeping and Aaron either couldn’t hear because of the headphones, or had fallen asleep as well.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Neil. What do you need?” Andrew still looked panicked, and Neil sort of felt bad about that. He still couldn’t stop sobbing long enough to answer so he just held his arms out in the universal sign for a hug. It spoke of how much Andrew trusted him, that he didn’t even hesitate to pull him into his arms and run his fingers through Neil’s hair. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>By the time they actually got to Baltimore, Neil was safely asleep, wrapped tightly in Andrew’s arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They arrived in New York just as the 8 a.m. traffic began to pick up. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well that wasn’t timed very well,” Dave muttered, as he finally managed to make his way into the city and find an empty metered space. “Come along boys, we’ll go grab some food, then meet up with your Uncle’s contact to talk about your passports. I already have yours, Nicky.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boys clambered out of the car, sighing in relief. Dave threw some quarters in the machine and led them down the street.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wendy’s sound good?” The boys all nodded in agreement, though Aaron made a face as he did so. Neil shouldn’t have let Andrew order for him, but he was so tired and distracted that when he had been asked what he wanted to eat, he could only shrug. If he had been the one to choose, he would have ordered a caesar salad or something. Not whatever it was that Andrew had handed him, loosely wrapped in yellow paper and shoved in a paper bag. Neil wasn’t even sure who paid for the meals, but he had a feeling it was Dave with Stuart’s company card. They ate their food at one of the tables upstairs while Dave spoke to a man on the phone in a language they didn’t know.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil nudged Andrew and nodded his head at Dave. “We should do that.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Make a phone call?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No. Learn a language. Maybe two. Maybe Nicky can teach us German, that would be cool huh?” Andrew just shot him an unimpressed look in response. “You in or no?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Dumbass.” Neil knew that meant ‘yes,’ so he grinned happily, and continued eating his burger. Andrew somehow ended up with both his and Neil’s frosty’s, but Neil got all of Andrew’s fries so he called it even. Apparently they were meeting Stuart’s contact at an office nearby.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil wasn't sure what he expected Stuart's contact to look like, but it certainly wasn't a friendly old British man with a bushy mustache and a wide grin. It made him feel better to know that even Andrew was a bit taken aback by the man's countenance. The man talked the </span>
  <em>
    <span>entire</span>
  </em>
  <span> time he was getting the twin’s passports ready, and somehow managed to talk even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> while he got Neil’s. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s good that you’re going back to England young master Hatford. Hatfords belong in England. America is nice and all, but it has nothing on the homeland!” Neil didn’t have the heart to tell him that he technically wasn't actually a Hatford, and that he was born in the United States at any rate, so he just smiled at the man and nodded along. When they were finally done, hours later, Neil found himself staring at a passport that had his face, but the name that ran along the top read </span>
  <b>Neil Josten. </b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil ran the name through his mind and across his tongue for the remainder of the day, and well into the night until Andrew finally flicked him in the forehead and told him under no uncertain terms to </span>
  <em>
    <span>go the fuck to sleep</span>
  </em>
  <span>. By the time they had arrived at the airport ahead of their 10 a.m. flight, Neil had come to the conclusion that Neil Josten was a much better name than Nathaniel Wesnenski had ever been.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aaron and Andrew were going through a similar epiphany, having realized the night before that it was the first time they had ever shared a last name. Andrew still found fault in it, even so. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>name though.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s our dad’s name,” Aaron pointed out.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s also Henry’s name,” Neil commented, looking up from his disappointing Starbucks croissant. Andrew scowled but only responded with,</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I still think we should both be Chadwicks.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Not even Carrie is a Chadwick yet,” Aaron said thoughtfully. “Maybe we can change when Martha and Carrie get married. In solidarity or something.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm,” Andrew agreed, before shoving his brother off of his chair and stealing it from under him. Neil watched them fight with a fond smile. Dave looked on in growing alarm, but didn’t try to stop them, while Nicky fell asleep in his own chair, despite the very large coffee that Neil had watched him buy himself at Starbucks. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they were called to line up at the gate. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you think Neil counts as a small child?” Nicky asked when they called for the early boarding.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Doubtful,” Dave said wearily. Neil felt a bit sorry for the man. It wasn’t his fault that Neil’s family were all childish and sleep deprived. In fact, Neil thought that he had been handling them all very well - especially considering the sheer number of shots Aaron had somehow convinced the lady at Starbucks to put in his own coffee. He hoped Stuart gave Dave a raise or something for this. He turned to Andrew to comment on it, only to find Andrew staring out the window, clutching his bag with white knuckles. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Andrew? What’s wrong?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andrew didn’t answer right away, just watched another plane take off in the distance. “I’m not - I just - I don’t like heights,” he told Neil rigidly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Neil blinked in surprise. Sometimes it still caught him off guard that his super cool best friend could also be scared of something as innocuous as heights. “Okay. I’ll take the window seat then. Do you want to hold my hand?” Neil asked him. He wasn’t sure how that would work, since Dave had said that the flight was eight hours long, but he would figure something out. Andrew didn’t answer, just clutched his hand. Neil wasn’t used to Andrew clinging to him. It was always him chasing after Andrew, so to have Andrew respond in kind made him a little giddy. That was what soulmates were for though, he decided, so you always had someone to lean on.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The line moved slowly toward the gate. “Do you want to go first?” Technically, Neil’s number was first, but he would let Andrew go first if it made him feel better. Andrew stared at him for a minute, then nodded. He still didn’t release Neil’s hand. Neil nodded back. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright then. I’ll follow you.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Neil does not know the difference between the New York Burroughs. Points to anyone who can tell me which Wendys I had in mind.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Annnd the bonus chapter!</p><p>If y'all want to talk to me, I'm on tumblr @nerdzewordart. There is also some art that I drew for this story posted there. Cheers!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2>
  <span>Bonus</span>
</h2><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How did-” Andrew tried to gather his reeling thoughts. “How did you know that you were..”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gay?” Martha smiled at him. “How did you know about your Neil?” Andrew did not appreciate being called out, and he wanted to be angry at her, but what came out of his mouth sounded a lot closer to panic. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s not - we’re not -” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not yet, no. But you know anyway don’t you?” Andrew gave a jerky nod. He may not have liked admitting his feelings, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie about them either.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You can’t stop it Andrew. Believe me, I tried fighting it for twenty years. I was miserable the entire time. Not because of Henry, he was lovely. But because I was trying to deny an essential part of myself. I spent so long trying to pretend that Henry was ‘the one’ because tradition dictated that he should be because we’re soulmates. And in the end it kept both of us from being happy.” Andrew’s head shot up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re soulmates?” she nodded an affirmative.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Seems it runs in the family doesn’t it?” Andrew nodded seriously, not even surprised she had caught on. Now that she mentioned it, he wasn’t surprised about her having a soulmate either. Maybe it was a side effect of having a soulmate, that you could tell when someone else did too. Neil would find it fascinating, but Andrew didn’t really care that much. Who cared about other people’s soulmates, he had Neil, he didn’t need anyone else.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know I said that Henry and I didn’t work out, that we were better as best friends. But that doesn’t mean the same will be true about you and Neil. It’s okay if you don’t know how you feel yet, there’s no rush on love baby.” Andrew didn’t know why he suddenly felt like crying. He never cried. Why did he suddenly want to do it now? He pushed the urge down just like everything else, and looked up at his grandmother.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t call me baby.” His voice was shaky so the words didn’t sound as threatening as they should have. She smiled at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t pretend to know what you kids have gone through, all three of you. But I’m glad you boys all have each other now. Promise me Andrew, you take care of them. Some bonds run far deeper than blood.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you talking about soulmates again?” He eyed her dubiously. He didn’t trust anyone who put all of their faith in a mystical bond. She laughed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>“No, soulmates are fine, they’re great really, but what you have with those boys runs deeper than just a soulmate bond. They’re your family</span> <span>Andrew. That’s what family means. They’re the ones who are there for you, even when everyone else has left you behind. They will be the ones who will tell you the truth, even when the truth isn’t what you want to hear. And they’re the ones who will love you no matter what you do. That’s what family means. Families are something you have to choose for yourself though. That’s something your mother never understood.”</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What - what if they do leave? What if they don’t stay?” Andrew hated how shaky his voice was. He hated feeling that vulnerable, but he also needed to know.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Does the sun cease to exist when it goes down?” He shook his head. “Love isn’t that fragile, it doesn’t go away when people are far apart. That’s how you know that your love is </span>
  <em>
    <span>real. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone you love is let them go.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But what - what if they don’t come back?” The tears were coming back, but there was nothing Andrew could do about that now. He needed answers damn it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Andrew. Can you look me in the face right now and tell me honestly that you don’t think that Aaron and Neil would come back?” He opened his mouth but no words came out. He thought he could imagine it, it was all he thought about really. But when he actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>thought about it. No, he couldn’t imagine it really. He couldn’t picture a single circumstance in which Neil decided that he’d rather not come back. In fact, Andrew was near positive that he would probably just find a way to annoy him from a distance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s just the pain talking Andrew, that’s just the hurt building up to make you feel small. You can’t let the fear overwhelm you and keep you from living your life. Those boys found you, and they haven’t left you since. Hell kid, Aaron left </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything </span>
  </em>
  <span>behind for you. You’ve gotta put a little faith in them, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andrew nodded and took a shuddering breath. Marth - his grandmother nodded at him kindly and stood up. “Now then, do you want to help me make dinner?” Andrew nodded and stood up as well before a thought occurred to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey -  are you part of my family now too?” she smiled at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Only if you want me to be kiddo.” Andrew thought about it. He didn’t exactly have a great track record when it came to adults, but he thought that his grandmother might be an okay exception to make. He gave a curt nod.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well then, I’m honored to be a part of your family Andrew.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Actual convo I had with the squad:</p><p>Me: should I make Andrew's grandma gay?<br/>squad: yes<br/>Me: but if I make Andrew's grandma gay, I'll want to give Andrew a heart to heart with her and it's Neil's POV<br/>squad: Just make it a bonus chapter?<br/>Me:....</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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